Red Valentino. Pre-Fall 2020 - Milan

(Images from the designer and the public domain. Credited to the photographer/company where applicable:  VALENTINO)

Red Valentino has embraced this continued representation of the free flowing and open trend which is emerging within the fashion  industry at the moment, more so the drawing from variants of amatory styles that have evolved from the last 40+ years.  For creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli's Pre-Fall 2020 collection, he has invoked the similarities of other major fashion brands attempting to tap into what appears to be a growing change in fashion, as discussed in my Gucci review.  A form of backlash is occurring that does not appear to be against any external aspiration, social or political, rather this renewed dynamic of aesthetics maybe reflecting a needed relevancy, infused with a devil-may-care dissatisfaction and subtle rejection of the overindulgence and internalization of the digital world. 

But, business is business whatever the sociological divergence.  As an offshoot brand from the Valentino's couture inspired collections; Red Valentino is more aligned with a Ready-To-Wear ensemble than selective tailoring.  However, this does not detract from the quality and delivered opulence that the Valentino fashion house is renown for.  Reestablishing it self into a more trend orientated and decisive engine after the founder Valentino Garavani handed the reigns over to Piccioli and his long time business partner Maria Grazi Chiuri in 2008, with Piccioli holding all creative control, whilst staying at the helm of the iconic fashion brand to this present day – maintaining record profits for the company, which is now fully owned by a Qatar investment company after its acquisition in 2012.  

Conglomerative fashion brands hold vast amounts of marketing power and when most trends seep up from street level, it can be missed and in some cases arrogantly overlooked.  With this new hyper consumption talking place at the ground level, intermixing the idealism of slow fashion and second hand/recycled purchases.  That in turn has created an under current of selling and buying of designer labels; the desire for iconic fashion brands is now at a feverish point.  Portrayed via a widespread aesthetically based individualism that paradoxically is without any collective cues, apart from integrating (and collecting) vintage and newer brand names for the trade with other like minded consumers. 

Piccioli has titled in a broad statements for Red Valentino Pre-Fall collection, as a “Free-spirited ...” and “...Powerful...Romanticism...” of the ...younger" women today.  Shifting into an alluring balance of nonchalant charm and seduction, Piccioli's latest collection holds true to the overall sub-trend that is mixed within the market of designer label collecting - also noted from Spring 2020 runways, of a sexual tension.  So the whole Pre Fall collection is smothered in pink and reddish hues, leotards, lingerie and sheer pieces. Mini skirts, off the shoulder jump suits and one piece dresses.  It plays around with late 1970s punk styles, mixing in elements of the hedonism of 80's sex, which, as mentioned says a lot of the sourced trends now emanating from the streets.  With designers and the purveyors of street looks, meeting half way in establishing a stylization that is unique, despite staring into the past for influence, there is the continued accumulation and desire to adsorb the amour-propre.