"Flowers and colors are what women want from me," Giambattista Valli said before his couture show—his fifth, the program notes reminded us. "That s what I give them, but every time I get inspired by something different." The something different tonight was porcelain. A photograph of Valli s own Meissen porcelain decorated the back of his invitation; on the runway, he divided the collection into neat sections, each influenced by a different country s china. To start, a series of eight looks in Capodimonte white, their tone-on-tone embroideries setting a sweet, if not quite virginal note that for the most part continued through the other groupings. With its leggy, vertical silhouette—even the floor-grazing trumpet skirts were sheer—this collection seemed to skew more toward Valli s twenty-something acolytes than to octogenarian fan Lee Radziwill.
After Capodimonte was Wedgwood. The Valentino designers riffed on Delft pottery in March, so a blue and white embroidered evening coat, while vivid, felt a bit familiar. France s sanguine red Sèvres came next. A strapless dress in draped mousseline with three-dimensional poppy florettes on the bodice was more hot-blooded.
The multicolor Meissen-influenced embroideries were last, and they were the best. Red-tipped pink silk flowers cascading down one side of a tulle column were so lush they could ve been real, and sprays of nearly-neon pink and yellow blooms on downy white gowns made you look twice. Luigi Scialanga s sculpted gunmetal belts, like twists of ribbon, accessorized many of the dresses. In this section they were gold-dipped, which reinforced Valli s theme beautifully.
