Robert Doisneau’s famous Le Baiser photograph, of a Parisian couple kissing on a crowded street, was backstage at the Giambattista Valli show – and for a reason. The designer, inspired by Paris, made almost his entire collection in mono graphic black and white with just chalky touches of colour.

 

 

“It is the intersection of what is the Valli world,” said the designer, as he greeted Lee Radziwill wearing a suit in the same bright red that broke the muted show language just a couple of times.

Significantly, after having dressed several seasons with colourful rugs spread across the catwalk; those too were reduced to white.

Valli designs for his clients, whether they are the glamorous, young Euroset sitting in the show rows or more distant women buying in stores online. What they get are clothes with what I would call “impressed” decoration. That does not mean that it impresses a client, although such fine workmanship might do just that. It is about compressing the embellishment so that at first sight the surface treatment seems non-existent.

Even the dozen long evening dresses that closed the show gave the impression of simplicity with their semi-sheer skirts and silvered embroidery. Yet, as the gowns swept by, the floral decoration on the red dress, for example, was a marvel of intricate detail.

While the graphic, but botanic look of compressed flowers might suggest a polite prettiness, flashes of flesh interrupted that feeling. A shadow of the body appeared through an aperture in a short skirt, with the lower legs wrapped in narrow bondage bands above high-heeled shoes.

Ultimately, the looks were a mélange of classy pieces many of which – for example, a chiffon skirt with a curly fur-trimmed jacquard jacket – would pair perfectly for cocktail hour.