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SALA BIANCA 50

50 years ago, Mr. Valentino surprised the audience at his couture show in Florence by sending out all-white looks.

This month, Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli debuts the house's Spring/Summer 2018 Haute Couture collection. The occasion marks a major anniversary: 50 years ago, Mr. Valentino surprised the audience at his couture show in Florence by sending out all-white looks. This was the legendary "Sala Bianca" collection, the one inspired in part by Robert Ryman's contemporaneous all-white canvases, the one memorialized in Henry Clarke's amazing photos of Beneditta Barzini and Marisa Berenson, shot in Cy Twombly's apartment in Rome, the one from which Jackie Kennedy plucked the dress she wore when she wed Aristotle Onassis.

 

By constricting his palette to shades of white and off-white, Mr. Valentino's "non-color" show put the spotlight on the craftsmanship of his clothes. Refined fabrics, silhouettes dramatic yet precise, embellishments elaborate but never de trop—Mr. Valentino's sure touch here established him, once and for all, as a master couturier, capable of conjuring magic with one hand tied behind his back, so to speak. The show also marked a major evolution in the Valentino vocabulary: It was on this runway that the "V" logo was introduced. Patterned into materials or added as a subtle detail, the logo didn't just announce the brand; it was a key design element.

 

The logo, the copious lace, and the gorgeous embroidery of the 1968 collection were all referenced in the "Sala Bianca 945" show, an homage staged in New York City in December of 2014 to celebrate the launch of the new Valentino flagship store. Naturally, Mr. Valentino's "non-color" palette was copied as well—much to the appreciation of Mr. Valentino and Mr. Giammetti, who were seated in the front row. And they'll be front and center again this month in Paris, as Mr. Piccioli carries on the Valentino legacy with the Spring/Summer 2018 Haute Couture show.

 

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