Giambattista Valli showed his latest creations at the couture shows in January, and, when I finally got around to having a good look, it was impossible to resist being captivated by the collection’s sheer audacious glory.
Rightly described as a conversation between Coco Chanel and Janis Joplin, it’s an inspired pairing of seemingly polar-opposite muses in one collection.
Chanel, arguably the matriarch of 20th century precision couture and Joplin, the queen of 1960s psychedelic soul did have one thing in common: an uncompromising approach to how they lived.
Valli’s is an iconoclastic appraisal on the strengths of two style icons that playfully shifts assumed perspectives. Had they met, could they have been friends? I like to think – yes!
And it’s in this commonality that Valli has drawn together both women’s sartorial style. Shift cocktail dresses over pants, à la Joplin, finished with a black headband, one of Chanel’s signature accessories, meld neon brocade and layered tulle capes. Like a dream sequence conjured from Valli’s deep subconscious, somehow the idea of these two women meeting in a couture collection works, and it’s a sumptuous delight.
