Simply Abu Dhabi XXVIII

VALENTINO Valentino presented its Cruise 2018 collection in New York to widespread praise. This time, Valentino’s identity merged with hip-hop, the most diffuse American cultural phenomenon. Pier Paolo Piccioli looked to the style of the street, creating everyday looks with an at- leisure spirit such as tracksuits cut in hammered silk, feathered flip-flops, pleated track skirts, short and long zip- front track dresses or colour blocked A-line midi dresses. Through the collection there are fluid short or long dresses adorned with pre-Colombian prints reinterpreted, deconstructed and mixed with the Zandra Rhodes lipstick motif. The entire collection is an urban metamorphosis, where the brand’s essence is conserved but its spirit is shaken. Like a cocktail, this Cruise 2018 collection by Valentino intertwines styles, eras and cultures: the classic elements of a wardrobe such as the shirt, the trench coat, the pleated skirt, the track jacket or the dress receive an attitude transformation and a fresh new interpretation by boosting their volumes and quivering their surfaces. It’s not as linear collection as we are used to seeing at Valentino. Instead, it is very diverse and mismatched: from sports to romance with the hip-pop and pre-Colombian references, topped off with a touch of lipstick print. These are Piccioli’s key elements for the 2018 Cruise collection that submerge themselves in diversity and stun with their harmony. A few bags and accessories were created for the show, in which jewellery is imagined as a composition that marks out personality and attitude. At Valentino, borders become elastic, making it possible for diverse cultures and contradictory ways of being to merge together.