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Giambattista Valli’s Mythological Couture

The world’s leading independent couturier, Giambattista Valli, staged his latest, hyper organic, collection on Monday, July 2, in the gilded glory of the Hotel Crillon in Paris though his inspiration came from a flight over the tundra of 30s Soviet Union.

After showing clothes that seemed to have sprung to life all on their own – multi-petal necked gowns in verdant green layers or rose petal organza cocktails – Valli told FWD that the classic Moscow-based novel, “The Master and Margarita,” had ignited his imagination, especially Margarita’s flight over the USSR and encounter with nymphs.

“More Nymphaea, than nymphs,” joked Valli backstage to FWD, referring to the mythological deities sea cave dwellings. The invitation was a photo of a moss fringed cliff and sliver of water.

For the ensemble of 36 passages – entitled simply Haute Couture 3, since this was Valli’s third couture collection – conjured up an ethereal world, where the admiration and creation of beauty is the ultimate profession.

Few couturiers have a richer imagination than Valli, who showed delicate macramé coats and puckered organza fantasy robes that looked like walking elements of nature.

The Roman-born couturier toughened the look with metal accessories, though covered with insects and gentler creatures. Sculpted bracelets with busy bees or cicadas, necklaces bearing butterflies, and belts on which mini tortoises and small lizards walked along vine leaves.

Many models had their hair tinted a raspberry henna shades, their heads wrapped in nets, their mouths covered by butterflies. A reverie on mythology, a collection inspired by a legendary satirical novel and an event of rarefied beauty, the sort one only really ever sees in fashion in Paris.

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