If you analysed the main motifs characterising Valentino's A/W 19 menswear collection just for what they were, you may have wondered if Pierpaolo Piccioli was maybe using the sci-fi theme to make a comment about some contemporary social issues.
Flying saucers flew indeed over a lunar landscape along the hem of Piccioli's coats or were screen-printed on tops and jackets.
Were they a reference to our universe and to uncharted planets or to the fact that what is alien, and therefore different from the norm, scares many people out there, especially those ones in power?
That could have been one of the hidden meanings of the collection, but there was a simpler explanation behind the visually eye-catching graphics of mysterious spaceships.
The graphic images integrated in the collection were indeed courtesy of Japanese designer Jun Takahashi of Undercover: Piccioli met him when Valentino did the Pre-Fall 19 show in Tokyo last year and, after a collaboration for products available only in the Tokyo-based boutique of the luxury fashion house, they decided to work together on prints that they could use in their menswear collections.
The inspiration for the graphic motifs actually came from Edgar Allan Poe, as proved by his portrait, at times covered by the image of the flying saucer, while other motifs included skulls and a joint "VU" logo (Valentino-Undercover).
The collection was based on relaxed shapes and silhouettes that maybe hinted at '80s Italian tailoring, but featured quite a few references to sport and streetwear (see the collaboration with Birkenstock), even though Piccioli seemed keen on moving away from it.
So, while the suits were laid back, they still fell in the luxury category; the soft knits with faded portraits of Poe (and of Beethoven - more about him later on in this post...) and a spaceship covering his face, looked instead more Undercover than Valentino.
At times the flying saucers came in Valentino red or disappeared from the coats and trench-coats-cum-capes to be replaced with the logo of the house (definitely not a desperately original choice, but an option for luxury fans obsessed with logos).
But if that's what was happening yesterday in Paris in the mid-afternoon on Valentino's runway, a few hours later the story continued and developed during Undercover's show.
Here Takahashi expanded the Edgar Allan Poe theme with the myth that says he was a time traveller: the legend comes from the fact that the writer seemed to have predicted real events (an incident of cannibalism after a shipwreck) that happened in 1884, in the book The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, published in 1838 (the name of the victim in the real shipwreck was Richard Parker, just as in Poe's novel...).
But, apart from Poe, there was another inspiration - Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange and its adaptation by Stanley Kubrick.
The references were clear in the droog-like nose masks, (feathered) bowler hats and canes accessorising the opening looks that mainly featured colourful robes, mohair shawls, sashes and thick and cozy knitted gauntlets.
Then came the coats and jackets with images of Malcolm McDowell as Alex in the film, dressed in his iconic costume designed by Milena Canonero, or with his eyes open as he undergoes the experimental behaviour modification treatment called the "Ludovico Technique".
There were more references to A Clockwork Orange, including the Russian-inspired Nadsat slang: words such as "Prestoopnick" (criminal), "Choodessny" (wonderful), "Horrorshow" (great) and "Moloko Vellocet" appeared on knitted jumpers and faux fur coats.
In A Clockwork Orange Alex is very fond of classical music and in particular of Beethoven, that he calls "the old Ludwig Van". His passion is destroyed by the music - Beethoven's Fifth Symphony - that ends up accompanying his aversion therapy that makes him unsable to enjoy classical music again. So here's explained the presence of Beethoven in this collection and in Valentino's.
There were other elements that could have been lined to the time traveller theme: the invitation featured a picture of Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus" (1601) and the feathers on the bowler hats matched with gauntlets were maybe references to some of the paintings by Caravaggio with young men sporting feathered hats (mind you, there was a moment when you could swear the style was more Bonnie Prince Charles than Caravaggio...) and maybe the connection with Alex wasn't so far off as Caravaggio was a rebellious and hot tempered man.
The sci-fi theme seen on Valentino's runway returned towards the end of Undercover's show with the same flying saucers, but, while Piccioli employed them for the hems of coats, Takahashi used them to decorate puffers and track pants. The show closed with droog-like figures clad in blood red, rather than white, and wearing ample coats and jackets.
This was not the first time Takahashi turned to Kubrick: for his A/W 2018 collection, the designer used indeed images taken from "2001: A Space Odyssey", while in the history of fashion the droogs appeared every now and then on the runways (from Elio Fiourcci's to Alexander McQueen's).
Yet seeing two contemporary designers working together and then using the same graphic elements in both their collections showcased in the same day during the same fashion week, is a first in the history of fashion.
According to Piccioli, this was a social experiment: at times it didn't works so well, first because some motifs risked of being replicated endlessly from one show to the next; second, at Valentino's Piccioli seemed to have fewer ideas compared to the colours, accessories and details Takahashi may have stolen during fantasy time-travelling sessions that appeared on Undercover's runway.
Sure, you could argue the clothes and accessories in these two shows are aimed at different consumers (take into consideration the emphasis on tailored moods verging towards couture at Valentino's and on more functional clothes at Undercover's...), but then again consider if the same graphic motifs in two different collections may generate confusion or even play against each other once the clothes end up in the shops.
Will the "Complementary Collection" (and presentation) become a trend? Hard to say, but, given the fact that people are losing interest in fashion shows, maybe this is one way to get more attention (well, there's always safety in numbers...). As for Takahashi, it is undeniable that this collaboration works well with him: in the past he has indeed played well with the theme of the double and with dichotomies, so this collaboration was a chance for him to expand the discourse and enrich his personal fashion vocabulary.
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