02 03 Votre Garçon: Giambattista Valli Couture Fall/Winter 2014-15 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Giambattista Valli Couture Fall/Winter 2014-15

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I'm currently captured by F Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender is the Night' where the scene takes place in the South of France on the French Riviera where we meet the glamorous couple, Nicole and Dick Diver and a barely 18 year old Rosemary Hoyt, the rising star. Fitzgerald creates a love triangle against the corruption and dark secrets that holds the Divers and their friendship group together causing their glamorous, rich and beautiful lives to slowly begin to tarnish. First published in 1934, the novel is set in the great Jazz Age of the roaring 20s in a beautiful French Riviera hotel which has sent me in a dreamy state of mind underneath the hot rays of the sun. Upon the presentation of the Giambattista Valli Couture Fall/Winter 2014-15, I knew I'd fall instantly in love with our leading lady as she walked out in a grey and white striped pyjama shirt with gentle folds and twists of the fabric for a skirt, stopping below the knee. Her hair was tossed up and hidden underneath a white cloth holding the mess together with large shades covering her eyes. She tossed on her heels from the night before and went on search for a strong, cup of coffee. Giambattista Valli presented a collection reminisment of a exclusive beach club set against the Classical era of Hollywood, something similar of the French Riviera where Nicole and Dick Diver and Rosemary Hoyt would be found. You could imagine one waking up to the bright sun after another night full of laughter, champagne and glamour, consuming yourself with the bed sheets around your naked body with the heat of the day beginning to pour itself into the hotel bedroom. This was demonstrated through the great folds of dramatic Fifties dresses or a long, light flared dress in white to be worn when there is a slight wind to let the fabric hug the edges of your body while the remaining trails behind. She finds her cup of coffee, served in the gardens of the hotel surrounded by great flowers of wisteria, daisies and geraniums blowing in the sea breeze, falling onto her lap and graceful shoulders. You don't have to think twice that this was the imagery Valli was aiming for with his collection. It may not have been exactly the fall and winter we were expecting but in fact ready for the summers ahead of Str. Tropez, Cannes and Monaco. With heavily embellished florals applied to white silk with bathing suits bottoms hidden beneath, the pyjama style pants, coats and dresses and from the gentle to great and drama filled folds and wraps; this collection was about rehabilitation. It was about those moments by the calmness of the sea and the breeze that comes with it, when matters become clear and there is a sense of tranquillity. Yet there was exclusiveness, richness and heat in this collection too reflecting on the Alhambra Gardens, Valli had visited a few years back. This collection held itself high without gracefulness with an almost grown up feel attitude yet still had a feel of eccentricity and a tasteful take of sexy. As I continue 'Tender is the Night', I can't help but imagine each scene played out with Nicole Diver in the pinstripe pyjama pants and a white peplum top with large white folds with applied purple flowers absorbing the shoulders and neckline, almost a wrap of a scarf of flowers as she lays underneath her parasol on the beach, looking on at her children and husband playing. Enters Rosemary Hoyt, the leading starlet in a black and white striped body hugging bathing suit with red and black flowers applied to a white transparent silk dress reading to steal to heart of Dick Diver. See the rest of the collection here.


Courtesy of Style.com
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