Giambattista Valli / Fall 2012 Couture

Giambattista Valli was thinking of “two parts of a garden—a flower garden and a nymphaea,” or a water lily pond like the one Monet cultivated and painted in his magical scenes, powerfully evoking the idea of light spangling the water’s surface.

There was an embarrassment of blossoming patterns, often in shimmering chinés—some of them had contrasting prints in the linings or used the same pattern in different fabrics for the same dress, like airy organza or chiffon veiling blistered satin.

“Couture is a moment when you go really far from fashion,” Valli explained, “It’s really another thing.” Instead, he used his runway show to focus on evening clothes that incorporated exceptional fabric embellishment and turned his girls into flower fairies, with their faces framed in giant ruffled petals.

Real butterfly specimens kissed the veiled lips of Valli’s mannequins or lit up in their hair, whilst gilded ones perched on the twisting branches that formed the waist-cinching belts or collars created by jeweler Luigi Scialanga.

Valli’s exquisite flowery decorations included a skirt made from a tracery of appliquéd ivy leaves, maple leaf-shaped lace cutouts, or another scattered with hundreds of dainty organza carnation blooms.

The shimmering impression of those Monet nymphaeas was ravishingly evoked by layering flower-print organza over patterned lamé, and there was drama in an evening coat composed of feathers in shades of leaf green and in the asymmetrically draped evening dress of blush mauve chiffon, ruffled like an opening early-summer rose.

Photo: Courtesy of Giambattista Valli
Source: www.vogue.com