Red Valentino RTW Spring 2021

How to make the aesthetic of a brand known for its delicate, feminine look a bit more radical and modern? By exaggerating its signature features, according to Pierpaolo Piccioli.

For spring, the creative director opened a new chapter for the Red Valentino brand, one based on a street-inspired style — less polished, probably more authentic and closer to real women’s needs and desires. Piccioli didn’t set aside any of the label’s distinctive elements, including ruffles, flounces and bows, but he magnified them and put them in less familiar contexts.

“I think this season, it was really time to bring Red Valentino into the street, exploring a new sense of authenticity and independency,” Piccioli explained. “I wanted to show a new, disruptive take on the brand’s signature aesthetic codes, delivering a wardrobe for cool, free, independent girls.”

For example, mini ruffled dresses, which traditionally would have been crafted from silk and lace, were rendered in nylon, the classic eyelet was shown in a unconventional maxi version on airy frocks, while point d’esprit tulle was paired with cotton on baggy T-shirts and oversized sweatshirts.

Piccioli’s signature couture-inspired approach emerged in the jersey tops enriched with dramatic ruffles, as well as in the patchwork, arty denim attires, while the technical feel injected into practical urban outerwear counterbalanced the ethereal attitude of flounced dresses…because you might take a Red Valentino girl out of a romantic world, but you definitely can’t take the romantic spirit out of her.

Launch Gallery: Red Valentino RTW Spring 2021

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