Valentino - Autumn/Winter 2013-14

SNOW WHITE, Red Riding Hood and Alice in Wonderland - they were all on the Valentino catwalk this afternoon for a collection that was a fairytale told in dresses.

 Designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli took inspiration from Flemish paintings, extracting a sense of purity and colour to create a collection that combined all the Valentino elegance we know and love while adding just the right amount of contemporaneity. Which has been this pair's success where others have failed - at this house and others beyond. Paris is the land of fashion-house-hopping and those that live to tell the tale become quite the thing of legend themselves.

Here we had naivety and fragility: short black shifts with lace embroidered collars, cuffs and yokes; coats and capes all-enveloping and hooded like religious robes - there were those that came in white fur dotted with black spots for a Narnia Snow Queen moment.

There came that signature elegantly waisted Valentino silhouette for dresses that were romantic and beaded and those that were lace, those with tapestry and embroidery and those that were a wash of watercolour sparkling pleats. They were blue, they were white, they were red. There were shirt and collar details to sedate that romance and extravagance and bring down to earth these beautiful gowns - part of the pair's inspiration point had been to glorify everyday life and what a glory it would be in any one of these dresses. How would one even begin to choose which to wear?

 

 But there were more short shifts and modern scalloped shapes to add to this tale too - blocks of colour (red to green and pink to blue) for natty and youthful little numbers.

Necklines came off the shoulder, on the shoulder, buttoned up or high - there were variations on each and every look to make that decision about which you would own if you could just that bit harder.

Still entirely in tune with the romance of Valentino, this collection was one that showed that fairytales, in somewhat of a contradiction, aren't just for adults. There was magic for all ages here.

elleuk.com and vogue.co.uk