Giambattista Valli Resort 2022
Giambattista Valli is edging slowly into what many are touting as another Roaring ’20s. He’s convinced women have had their fill of WFH casual and roomy comfort clothes, but they will dress up to please themselves first and foremost.
Cue a resort collection with the spirit and charm of a French garden party, but translated into pert clothes for city life. Valli imagined women returning to the office, but taking the scenic route through the Tuileries or Central Park to breathe fresh air, now that face masks are no longer required outdoors in some cities.
“People want to wear more fitted clothes, well-made clothes, real clothes,” he said as he led a visitor through his Paris showroom, the racks an inviting array of cream and pale pinks, crisp poplin and ruffled chiffon — charming rose-bush prints here, polka dots and light checks there. “The wardrobe is evolving.”
While he’s known best for lavish evening gowns and cocktail dressing, Valli said he also does solid business with cardigan-style jackets in light tweeds, and shirts with distinctive, feminine details.
The tailoring was crisp and youthful, including abbreviated jackets that look terrific over short poplin dresses. Railroad stripes were another recurrent print motif, and Valli zhushed up otherwise boyish shirts with lantern sleeves or a band of ruffles across the bosom.
Here were approachable, workaday expressions of the Italian designer’s romantic, hyper-feminine universe: with dustings of micro sequins on dresses, panels of lace on lightweight cashmere knits, and just the right amount of embroideries on shirts and sweaters.
Since luxury is such an overused term, Valli prefers the word excellence as he showed off the meticulous finishing on the scooped neckline of a dress, inspired by a men’s tank top, or the organza inlays on swishy skirts.
For women who want to venture a little further than a stroll in the park, he unfurled a line of logo totes emblazoned with a choice of enticing resort destinations, among them Mykonos, Ibiza, Positano and Montauk.
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