The impossibility of Haute Couture – an expansion of the imagination, a space beyond reason. Couture is a sphere of fantasy and freedom, of the unique and exceptional, where craft is not a fetishistic reflection of value but a means and methodology to achieve improbabilities, to challenge perceptions, to create bold new realities. Fabric becomes a chiaroscuro across the body, volumes float, cuts are imperceptible, a ribbon of chiffon may suspend a ball gown. The unbelievable becomes material, imagination becomes real.
Harnessed to this fundamental virtue of Haute Couture, Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli conceives an impossible rendez-vous, between the universes of Couture and the club. Perceived polarities can provoke dialogue, another impossibility: a synergetic, spontaneous language is found between the lexicon of Couture and the world of nightclubbing. Their shared values: mutual gestures of extravagance, the notion of clothes as tools of transformation, crafting a true self, a dichotomous yet dual vocabulary of display and revelation, performance through life. And, above all, a plurality of beauty, beauty as individuality, a heroic expression of inner truth made outer. Fashioning a dream – the opportunity to become.
Shifting perception and perspective, context is altered – Couture is presented within new environs, as emphasis to this essential exchange. There is a symbiosis between the characters of the club and the imprimatur of Maison Valentino, boldness conveyed through colour and graphic pattern, embellishment and volume.
Volant ruffles invent new architectures around bodies, polka-dots and stripes are reinterpreted through cut, forming two dimensions from three. Couture tropes are challenged through their celebration, embroideries and hand-drapes, pale pink feathers knotted with black satin bows. A play with scale magnifies details, to resonate. The glamour of Valentino is resignified, reflective of the self-expression of a new generation.
And within the egalitarian arena of the club, Couture itself transmutes ideologically: here it may become democratic, a proposition of universal enjoyment, a symbol of emotional resonance. The sign value of Haute Couture is thus transformed – Couture becomes an emblem of uniqueness, personality, identity and character, and an evocation of the purest human joy of dressing and dressing up.
