Valentino's Latest S/S 21 Haute Couture Collection: 'Code Temporal'

As the pandemic sweeps across Europe, continuing pressures arise for fashion houses to uncover new innovative ideas for presenting their collections. A show with no audience? A film? A digital presentation? These are just some of the latest inventions listed on the fashion calendar over the recent months. With this in mind, Valentino have announced they will continue to show next week, revealing a digital presentation scheduled for 26 January, 15:00 CET to showcase their S/S 21 haute couture collection, 'Code Temporal.' Piccioli has chosen to highlight Valentino’s couture collection at the Galleria Colonna, Sala Grande, in Rome. The Baroque Palazzo Colonna dates back to the 14th century.

Last season, Piccioli collaborated with SHOWstudio's director Nick Knight for the house’s A/W 20 couture collection. The collection, presented as a film titled Of Grace And Light, explored the idea of rebirth and mixed the digital in harmony with the human touch, celebrating the union of physical and digital realities and how they can coexist in the same space. The collaboration involved staging a live performance at Cinecittà Studios outside Rome which saw Piccioli create 15 white gowns (some of which were as tall as 16 feet) worn by models perched on swings, suspended from the ceiling, or installed on towering, hidden platforms - as the couture dresses floated through the air, coloured and ornamented by projections of images of nature.

As a separate release, launching on Friday 29th January, Piccioli has collaborated with SHOWstudio contributors Robert Del Naja and Mario Klingemann to reveal the making of the haute couture collection.

With the pandemic causing many of us to adapt our way of thinking, physical fashion shows are, at the moment, a thing of the past. Designers are consistently experimenting with new ways that enable them to reveal their collections. Rather than reflecting on pre-pandemic events, Pierpaolo Piccioli doesn't seem to be phased or scared of the future and its imminent digital presence. Instead, the designer seems to be embracing fashion's new digital world by choosing to collaborate with artists whose work is already tailored to incorporating a digital medium.