Valentino. All Roads Lead to Rome

In the front row: Anne Hathaway, dressed in Valentino pink, next to Giancarlo Giammetti dressed in white. Naomi Campbell, the black Venus with a white pant suit and black cape full of rouches and the editor of Vogue USA, Anna Wintour, Laura Pausini in a Valentino red jacket and pants and Elodie in pink, as was Ariana DeBose, the actress and dancer, winner of the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2022 for the film West Side Story. The Italian guests included Kasia Smutniak, Valentina Cervi and Alessandra Mastronardi, all in black, while Drusilla Foer wore a spectacular long emerald-green dress.

From the opener of the show, a blouson dress with Valentino red taffeta roses to the final black tulle dress with glitter print embroidered with silver sequins, the press release listed the names of those who meticulously created each dress. The show was opened by a Valentino red blouson dress, a sartorial creation with large red taffeta roses, a nod to the famous Fiesta dress designed by Valentino Garavani for his first Valentino collection.

In Rome, in the Atelier; the place where creations and inventions come to life through the hands and stories of those who make the clothes, whose character is expressed through their work

Everything starts anew where everything always begins: in Rome, in the Atelier; the place where creations and inventions come to life through the hands and stories of those who make the clothes, whose character is expressed through their work. This symbol was perfectly conveyed by title of the collection, ‘The Beginning’, chosen by Piccioli to emphasize the idea of a new start. “Everything starts anew where everything always begins: in Rome, in the Atelier; the place where creations and inventions come to life through the hands and stories of those who make the clothes, whose character is expressed through their work. In the world, nothing has changed. The address hasn't changed either. “But everything has changed,” reads the statement issued by the Maison. “A dialog with personal history, an ideal exchange with the founder through a collection of moments, themes, colors, materials, signs, lines, following only the map of taste and feeling. Dialog is self-reflection and self-discovery, to find other perspectives.

After all, nothing is ever repeated in exactly the same way. Every beginning is always timely. And every beginning brings you back to the Atelier, because that's where the vision becomes tangible. The conversation ultimately happens in the fashion show, a topical moment and final expression of the idea. Fashion is never static. Movement is its true dimension, unraveled in space and time. The movement down a flight of steps full of history evokes other fashion movements and moments, down the same steps, which now become an extension of the Atelier. The final photograph coincides with the first photograph, but not entirely.

One of the differences is the embrace of new beginnings, of further journeys guided only by the maps of sentiment.” And here, down the steps, come models in the symbolic Valentino colors: after Red, Pink but also Lime, which, in the expert hands of the Maison's dressmakers, are transformed with the fabulous shapes and cuts of haute couture. These same dressmakers were invited by the creative director to join him at the end of the show to receive the applause of the audience. And after the fashion show for 500 guests, the party continued with a dinner organized at the Caracalla Spa.