Simplification is an amplifying act. By reducing shapes to an elementary outline, letting material speak through color and texture and lines materialize through painstaking workmanship, simplification multiplies and maximizes possibilities. Clothing and the individual become one, taking on as many shades and variations as there are personalities. Freedom of interpretation incites freedom of movement.
An egalitarian collection that stems from the will to purify, rationalize, subtract in a gently radical way. Flat, elementarily geometric shapes result from a process of thoughtful definition effortlessly resolved in the mastery of cut. Abstraction augments purposefulness. Pieces have a meaning when laid flat, and gain another one when inhabited by a body. Items cross from the masculine to the feminine, cut as if to make fabric seem to be barely laid on the body. Everything can be spontaneously assembled in a number of personal ways.
Solid and vibrant, colors define forms: shades of green, red, pink, compose a silhouette that is fluid, uncontrived and lean. An almost ascetic simplicity comes across as scheme-less, rather than imposing. Tunics, tops, trousers and capes are addends of geometric sums with the modular feel of uniform dressing. Tapestry motifs are completely dematerialized.
The Valentino Garavani Accessories are materic and tactile: flowers, bows, studs in leather or straw multiply on the Atelier Bags as well as on the Atelier Shoes, mixing the historic and the contemporary signs of Valentino with an emphasis on craft. Hats are developed in collaboration with Borsalino, bringing another atelier knowledge into the discourse. Extravagance comes across as the spontaneous language of unbridled expression. As such, it is an egalitarian and liberating act.
