RUNWAY REPORT.....Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week: Valentino Couture Fall 2017

WHAT: Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2017. Creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli created an extraordinary collection, showing a full range from day wear to evening, full of wonderful color (marshmallow, strawberry, banana, prune!) combinations, simple shapes belying very labor intensive handwork (most garments took 1,000+ hours to create...each!), inspired by the commonalities of the church and religion, and the art of Haute Couture....

Paintings of Saints, Bishops by Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran

INSPIRATION: The Church meets Couture. The rituals of religion and its commonalities with the rituals of Haute Couture. It takes lots of time, effort and patience to create one-of-a-kind bespoke clothing and these handcrafting rituals resembled--to Pierpaolo Piccioli--the time-consuming rituals of The Church. In addition, the designer sought to be inspired by portraits of bishops, cardinals, nuns, saints from Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran.

Couture Details: Feathers, cotton lace, mink, caviar beading, fringe bugle beads--Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2017

DETAILS: Pleated skirt made out of strips of feathers(!); mink (!) coats; velvet intarsia, cashmere, brocades, chiffon plisse. Lots of monk-like capes, hoods, tent-like gowns.

Collection Highlights: