Is there anything remotely natural about a £100,000 dress? Valentino's latest collection, unveiled in Paris, suggests that there might well be. This was supreme luxury with naturalism at its core.
Borrowing motifs from African plains and ethereal forests, Valentino's leading design duo Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli unveiled a showcase that was among the most spellbinding on the Haute Couture schedule.
Placing aspects of the primitive world including lions, snakes and feathers as against the the extravagant backdrop of Paris Hotel Salamon de Rothschild - a former home of France's Rothschild banking dynasty - Valentino seemed determined that their couture customer found beauty in nature- as well as in the ornate world.
This show was about harmony - harmony between that which is man-made and that which is inherent to the world's landscape, and harmony between minimalism and its extravagant counterpart.
A series of ornate motifs, created in collaboration with Rome's Opera House, lent detail to otherwise simplistic a-line gowns giving emphasis to this idea of two worlds coming uniting. Lions, gorilla and tigers painstakingly appliquéd onto intarsia coats continued this notion.
Keen to celebrate their native culture as well as that of a far-off lands, opera also played a significant role with each outfit on display inspired by a particular production. One mesmerising tulle mid-length dress, embroidered with the most delicate Chantilly lace, was linked to Benjamin's Britten's A Midsummer's Night's Dream while a cashmere leopard suit - which took 1200 gruelling hours to create - is said to have been inspired by Gioacchino Rossini' Il Turco In Italia.
It was a clever concept but it wasn't this show's trump card - after all, clothes this beautiful do not require such things. Masterful and modern, Chiuri and Picciol's skill lies in their ability to create extreme luxury with modern appeal. Rarely stuffy and never contrived, the designers have furrowed a path for themselves as the pioneers of a new age of elegance. It is for this reason that the stand out pieces on display today were not the intricately crafted lion motifs or the swan tutu dresses which came lavishly decorated with delicate tulle but the Valentino classics.
A double cashmere coat in sumptuous navy blue serves worn loosely over a draped dress in the same shade serves as a perfect example of the designers expert ability to redraft haute couture for the minimalist, modern day customer while with a mushroom grey gown, puritanical in silhouette, the duo created perfect harmony.
