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Valentino’s Hyper-Modern Couture

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s streamlined take on classic couture tropes found brilliance in its fearless use of colour and its emotional geometry, reports Angelo Flaccavento.
Valentino Autumn 2021 Couture. Courtesy.
(giovanni_giannoni_photo)
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The liaison between fashion and art is old and complex, but more often than not, fashion houses use artist collaborations to give brute commerce a semblance of culture. Pierpaolo Piccioli brought Valentino’s latest haute couture collection to Venice tonight, staging the show at the Arsenale complex of shipyards that also hosts the Venice Biennale. And yet, “fashion is not art,” declared the designer.

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