The show s backdrop of scrolling binary code instantly screeched The Matrix, but Valentino s eye on the future remained mercifully untainted by any dystopian flimflam. Instead, the designer claimed inspiration from all the well-dressed young men he sees emerging from stock exchanges in London and New York. If that is indeed the case, those guys deserve an award this season, because Valentino s collection was nearly flawless. Using the finest fabrics and the plainest palette of white, gray, charcoal, and camel, the designer wove a serene vision of sartorial perfection. Tone-on-tone pale shades—white, cream, bone, ivory—in velvet layered over cashmere (to isolate just one example) were so lulling, in fact, that the appearance on the catwalk of a pair of black leather pants, followed by a black leather jacket, had a jarring effect (even though they were in the softest plonge).
Sartorialism is a menswear theme for Fall 2007 (cued by the exhibition in Florence devoted to the influence of Savile Row), but Valentino s signal achievement was that nothing about his attention to the details of a classic man s wardrobe was odd, bland, or dull. (You don t truly know tedium until a bespoke obsessive has opened his mouth.) Instead, there was a seductive ease and a genuinely aspirational (as in, "I wish I had that") edge to a single-button double-breasted suit in a Prince of Wales check, never mind the layers of various shades of gray cashmere or the black knit cardigan coat with its buckled closings. A monogrammed cashmere dressing gown struck a bit of a bum note when it came to eveningwear, but you re likely to be too taken with Valentino s daywear to dress for dinner anyway.
