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For Fall 2014 the designers pictured a pagan goddess on her way to the temple, painted with the calm of the Pre-Raphaelites. Alma-Tadema’s paintings of Roman women in transparent drapery were on the mood board, and the show closed the season on a runway edged with tall grasses.
The result was a run of goddess dresses that read like modern takes on Roman togas, one of them a white draped tunic named after Alma-Tadema’s painting The Siesta. Every look came with flat gladiator sandals laced to the knee, and long leather ribbons tied at the waist. The fluid shapes that had once made Valentino look noble or nun-like now looked young and easy. Rustic wool and leather embroidery, gold and black wheat sheaves on white wool and hand-painted daisies on nude organza gave the romance a raw edge.
There was plenty of luxury too, including a gold lamé coat embroidered with pearls, paillettes and silk thread, and a tulle toga covered in pearls and crystals. But the best dresses were the simplest: single lengths of fabric draped across one shoulder, like a couture version of the bedsheet dresses everyone made as a child.
The reviews were glowing. Suzy Menkes found it romantic and graceful and felt it brought back a sense of female privacy, while asking who couture is really made for now: the client, the image or the fantasy. Valentino and Chanel both sent flat shoes down the couture runway that week, which people noticed. The one catch is that the very slim silhouette won’t suit every body.
A lovely, fresh collection, and one of the most wearable couture shows of the decade.
More Valentino: see every Valentino couture collection we have reviewed and Valentino Garavani: The Complete Guide.
Previous collection: Valentino Spring 2014 Couture · Next collection: Valentino Spring 2015 Couture
Pictures courtesy of Vogue Runway
We do not own the rights to any of these images and they have been used in good faith. Every effort has been made to ensure that all images are used with proper credits. If you are the rightful owner of any image used on our site and wish to have it removed, please contact us at ayerhsmagazine@gmail.com and we will promptly remove it. We are a non-commercial, passion-driven, independent fashion blog and do not intend to infringe any copyright. Thank you for your understanding.
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