Valentino seems hellbent on making sure you don’t forget the legends and icons of modeling as they added yesterday to their growing list of memorable muses Naomi Campbell, Natalia Vodianova, and Alek Wek who haven’t walked for the brand since 2003 and 2004. They join faces like Christy Turlington, Kristen McMenamy, Liya Kebede, Saskia de Brauw and Mariacarla Boscono who have been conjured in recent years to add to the evolving brand identity under Pierpaolo Piccioli‘s direction.
What’s more, this couture season unveiled Piccioli’s ode to Cecil Beaton’s image of Charles James gowns but under a different gaze – a gaze focused primarily on women of color. The maximalist demonstration set to Roberta Flack was filled with feathers, on tops and on lashes, gravity-defying ruffles, a segment with a floral explosion, and colors you could eat. Yet, what stood out the most was the sea of people of color, distinctively the varying shades of blackness, that waxes as much of a statement as the size of the dresses.
Below are a few names that got their couture start yesterday at the storied house.
Veronica Cabral
