The gospel according to Valentino

Not since the early days of John Galliano has there been such a narrative to a fashion show: tonight’s Valentino couture collection in Paris spun a classic yarn, that of the Garden of Eden and Original Sin. At least, that’s what it looked like.

The opening look was a sheer, tiered tulle gown appliqued with musical notes, an overture perhaps or the music of the spheres. Then came a full-skirted dress featuring a painterly graphic of a Cranach-style Adam and Eve, and another which showed a naïve junglescape and grinning Rousseau-ish tiger, a motif repeated throughout on blanket coats too. 

After this were unfinished tutus in black, white and nude, gossamer thin in their layers and entwined with glittering snakes, a feathered swan and sparkling peacocks around the waist. These were supposed to represent the ‘sublime yearning of time’. So far, so fall of man – and perhaps the most glamorous re-telling of it yet.

When appeared next was within the established Valentino codes but no less allegorical in aesthetic: pared back and ascetic full length gowns, divine in their opulent simplicity and monastic in their feel, in earthy tones of brown, olive and grey.

There were edges and layers of filigree lace too – those round-shouldered cape-tops to dresses that designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli have so popularised – and heavy embellishment in beading and paillettes. Structure was simple, almost planate, but for cowl backs and cut-outs that recalled liturgical dress – chasubles and scapulars, and other tokens of High Church bling that this pairing have reimagined previously for fashion worshippers.

There was so much to this collection, in terms both of craft and concept but also of collectability, that it feels too remote, even vaguely ridiculous, to try and place it within the same realm as ‘trends’. But if more proof were needed of the ever-shifting (increasingly fading) line of definition between fashion and art, or clothing and high culture, then this collection was it.

Click the gallery to see every look from the Valentino spring 2014 couture collection