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BACK TO GLAMOUR III

Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2007

 

With the holidays upon us, the Valentino Museum is celebrating the art of dressing up—and not just for parties. Tis the season for casting off athleisure-wear and putting on looks with a sense of polish and pizzazz, and with that in mind, we're looking back at a few of Mr. Valentino's late-career collections, ones that might inspire women to--as Mr. Giammetti recently put it on his Instagram--get #backtoglamour.

 

"Seemingly effortless luxe, calme, et volupté" was how Tim Blanks described Mr. Valentino's HC F/W 2007 show, his penultimate couture outing. If you want a guide on how to get #backtoglamour, look no further than this collection, which found Mr. Valentino using all the tricks he'd mastered over his long career to produce garments of incomparable suavity. Whether the quiet allure of an ivory matelassé coat with a wrapped waist and fur collar, or the full-throttle chic of a mini-dress embellished with feathers and crystals and topped with a royal purple cape, the sense of refinement here was palpable. Known for his signature reds, this collection also made the case for Mr. Valentino's deft touch with the color pink: In his hands, pastel-pink looked anything but baby-ish, with a slit-to-there beaded gown and crisp jacket trailed by a waterfall of ruffles showing off pink's potential for sleekness and sophistication. He managed a similar sleight of hand here with his abbreviated lengths, proving that a short frock can be just as forcefully formal as a floor-sweeping gown. Of course, it helps if your micro-mini comes with a hemline contoured out of tissue paper-thin layers of organza, cut in a circular shape. Glamour is a construction of both art and craft; that's what makes it timeless.

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