To all who are familiar with the Maison Valentino, the colour red represents a staple. It is as iconic as navy blue is to American fashion. This year, with his Valentino PINK PP collection, Valentino Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli "wanted to explore all the nuances of the iconic colour of the Maison to arrive at the conceptual conceiving," of a specific shade of pink. As it points out on the collection's homepage "the pink-out is an experimental yet deeply human gesture that enhances individuality, capturing values and feelings. The shade of pink by Pierpaolo Piccioli, for which Valentino is collaborating with Pantone Color Institute to create a unique identity, is individual and unrepeatable in itself."
But back to the Valentino Red for now. As the tagline for the book says "The past is the present, Valentino today is about now." The Maison’s renowned colour is the most powerful, recognizable, and recognized symbol of the great Italian designer and couturier, a colour which took the name of its creator in 1985. Personally, I remember going to through the high vaulted halls of the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, and seeing the stunning creations by the Maestro himself in his legendary red, flanking Michelangelo's David during a fashion Biennale held in the Tuscan city. It is a sight one never ever forgets.
'Rosso Valentino' is an essential chapter of the narrative of the Maison, a synonym of its glorious history and of its aesthetic identity. The research of the connection between then and now, brought to the creation of a masterpiece Haute Couture book, Rosso, a unique opera that explores the personality of the iconic Rosso Valentino through the decades, entirely handmade in the Valentino Atelier. 'Haute Couture Book, Rosso', a new volume in collaboration by luxury publisher Assouline, which is a wonder in itself. Housed within a beautiful townhouse in the centre of London, the family-run publishing haven also has an onsite bar where all the cultural creme de la creme in the British capital meet for a drink and a chat.
Valentino Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli said: “This book is not a retrospective, not a celebration and it’s not even a didactic guide. It’s simply the way we work. Valentino Archive is an alive and pulsing ecosystem in which all of our treasures are ready to tell their own stories when interrogated. This time we wanted to know how many red dresses we have, how present Rosso Valentino is in all of our creations.So this book, maybe, is an answer to that question, or the beginning of something more. What is sure is that none of that could have ever been possible without the incomparable genius of Mr Valentino himself and without the work, the dedication, the perseverance and the talent of every single seamstress and tailor that transformed our ideas into reality.”
The initial quest behind the project was to find out how many nuances of Rosso Valentino are present in the Maison Archives. And the answer turned out to be more than 550 different palettes merely within the couture creations.
The imagery blends with a narration that pursues the evolution of the iconic colour from the roots of the Maison with Valentino Garavani until the creative vision of Pierpaolo Piccioli. The creation of this unique chrome and its infinite variations until the contemporary ValentinoPINK PP. It is a history of artisan mastery, love for couture and for colours.
'Rosso Valentino' is about identity and Inclusivity into a unique soul with infinite variations that reflects the beauty of human beings.
The book will be on sale in selected bookstores as well as on Assouline website and in Assouline and Valentino Boutiques Worldwide by Autumn 2022.
