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Valentino Fall 2016 Couture: A Shakespearean Farewell

By Shreya S2 min read
Valentino Fall 2016 Couture: A Shakespearean Farewell 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.  

by brownfashionagal

Fall 2016 marked 400 years since Shakespeare’s death, and the collection took his Elizabethan world as its stage. The house described it as a portrait gallery, with each dress holding a single impulse of the soul, and the show was set to Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.

The cast was princes, princesses and priests. White ruffs and ruffled shirts appeared under almost everything, with doublets, puffed sleeves, capelets, square necklines and clerical robes. The palette was mostly black and white with flashes of red, and thick-soled boots gave it an Elizabethan-punk edge. Living and working in Rome, surrounded by Renaissance portraits and churches, the designers and their atelier know this world well, and it shows in delicate lattice necklines, gold brocades embroidered with pearls, and taffeta capes and skirts that swept the floor.

It was also a goodbye. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s move to Dior was confirmed around the time of the show, ending a design partnership with Pierpaolo Piccioli that went back more than two decades. Most reviews read it as a farewell. Harper’s Bazaar UK found it more monastic than their usual chiffon and guessed that Anne Boleyn was the muse, and Fashion Gone Rogue called it one of their most impressive couture collections. Vogue pointed out that McQueen and Sarah Burton had explored this ruffed, clerical look before.

As a final chapter it is fitting: rich, poetic and very Roman. A beautiful ending to a remarkable era.

More Valentino: see every Valentino couture collection we have reviewed, and for what came next for Chiuri, A walk through Maria Grazia’s Dior.

Previous collection: Valentino Spring 2016 Couture · Next collection: Valentino Spring 2017 Couture

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Pictures courtesy of Vogue Runway

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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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