Mood board: Time and time again, the question of ‘where is gender now?’ swirls around the shows like the smell of a lingering lunch. The lines between the masculine and the feminine are increasingly crossed. Tradition is tucked in, but designers pick and choose what they want. The relaxed is given rigour; leaner styles are cut in softer fabrics. creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s sensational womenswear for the house of Valentino is ultra feminine, in the most operatic sense, whilst his menswear has a more supple approach to classic masculine codes. For A/W 2019, he had greater fun with fluidity. The clothes had a liquid line. The silhouette of tailoring, outerwear and accessories was rooted in a sense of freedom and ease. What the show notes called: ‘A twist, in the sobriety.’
Best in show: Individual pieces were broken down, eased and re-calibrated in monochrome. There was graceful suiting; sleeveless wool jackets worn over coats. Lightly padded raincoats. A longer line on shirting worn underneath double breasted jackets. Rich wool coats with long, scarf collars. Standout were the space-age graphics designed in collaboration with Jun Takahashi of Undercover. His collages, featuring space ships, portraits of Ludwig van Beethoven in the film A Clockwork Orange, flying saucers and lunar landscapes, were used as intarsias, embroideries, jacquards and prints. The season’s standout coat will most likely be a round-shouldered mohair style, covered with Takahashi’s floating, sky-blue spaceships.
Finishing touches: Long gone are the days when designers would keep everything secret from one another. The mood today is less competitive and more convivial. For the coming season Piccioli collaborated with the eminent healthy footwear brand Birkenstock on two exclusive styles. Their classic Arizona sandals were shown in Valentino red with tonal buckles and a tonal full leather covered footbed. And in total black with the omnipresent VLTN logo writ large on the side in white. ‘No matter what you wear, who you are, no matter your gender or social background, no matter your age, your style, no matter if you care about fashion or if you do not, Birkenstock has its own universal language,’ Piccioli said.
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The bespoke Jaguar E-Type GTO melds elements from every era of the classic sports carECD Automotive Design’s one-off commission caters to a client who wanted to combine the greatest hits of Jaguar’s E-Type along with modern conveniences and more power
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Casa Sanlorenzo debuts in Venice as a new hub for contemporary artThe luxury yachting leader unveils a stunning new space in a palazzo restored by Piero Lissoni – where art, innovation, and sustainability come together
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Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on lifeThanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being rebonr as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
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Donna Trope celebrates the power of the Polaroid in Paris‘Polaroids used to be my rejects, and now they are my holy grail,’ says the beauty photographer, as she shows rarely seen images in a Paris exhibition
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Horace’s new men’s scent is the linen shirt of the fragrance closetVetiver Primavera, the new fragrance from men’s grooming brand Horace, is casual but elegant, says Wallpaper’s Mary Cleary – a citrussy scent for summer
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‘Don’t forget to get the bread!’ Serge Lutens writes an ode to a singular perfumePublished exclusively by Wallpaper*, Serge Lutens writes an ode to Jeux de Peau, a singular perfume of his creation inspired by a childhood memory of baking bread
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Inside the new Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti in Rome, which opens with an ode to ‘Valentino Red’Wallpaper* gets a private tour of the new Roman institution, PM23, which opens with an exhibition of ‘dialogues’ between Valentino Garavani’s designs and a catalogue of red-hued contemporary art
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French skincare brand PERS doesn’t believe in overcomplicated routinesFrench skincare brand PERS – an acronym for ‘protect, enhance, repair, and stimulate’ – has recently arrived in the UK. The mastermind behind it, Dr Antoni Calmon, tells Wallpaper* about his protocol
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Inside Valentino’s intimate New York ‘listening room’, designed with TerraformaUniting with Italian collective Terraforma, Valentino continues the phenomenon of the ‘listening room’ with L’Atelier Sonore, a plush new space in its Madison Avenue store complete with an eclectic sonic programme for vinyl aficionados
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What did Christian Dior’s favourite ‘invisible’ flower smell like?Dior’s Francis Kurkdijan recreates the scent of a rare lily of the valley species in Le Muguet, the first olfactory chapter of new perfume collection Les Récoltes Majeures
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Inside Camperlab’s Harry Nuriev-designed Paris store, a dramatic exercise in contrastThe Crosby Studios founder tells Wallpaper* the story behind his new store design for Mallorcan shoe brand Camperlab, which centres on an interplay between ‘crushed concrete’ and gleaming industrial design
