Nick Knight paints Valentino Fall 2020 Couture collection with light and poetry

Two weeks after the first Paris Digital Fashion Week dedicated to haute couture, Valentino presents its Fall 2020-2021 Couture collection by painting a tableau vivant made of light and poetry in the Cinecittà studios. Pierpaolo Piccioli brings on stage 16 white dresses, with exaggerated silhouettes, vaporous sculptures of taffeta and glitter of the consistency of clouds that, as if by magic, emerge from the total darkness of the salt thanks to the plays of light projected by Nick Knight. As symbolic immaculate canvases on which he rebuilds the future of fashion, the English artist projects shapes, motifs and prints inspired by the four elements. 

In a press conference via Zoom, Piccioli explained that the birth of these looks is an extreme response to the difficult circumstances of isolation. In the impossibility of using skilled tailors, Knight's digital art created prints and embroidery as Cinderella's Fairy Godmother magically sewed Cinderella's ball gown. The collection was born during the lockdown as a sort of reflection on the concept of humanism from a dialogue between Piccioli and Knight, between haute couture and digital art. The designer says:

Through history, the moments of restoration or reboot, always human values are at the focus. Humanism is the seed of rebirth. This is one of these moments. Focusing on fashion as a deeply human effort to give shape to matter through the hands, shaping creations that the body inhabits and gives life to. We are finally close and ready to dream together. With love. 

Among feathers, flowers, bows and colors, the models are suspended like acrobat fairies, hung like beautiful birds on swings and hula hoops, while the music of Fka Twigs gives voice to this dream. They wear true artworks: the bustier dress in taffeta and the one in chiffon and feathers; the puffy pleated dress; the tundra, organza and white tulle coat with ruffles; the fourreau dress in ivory organza with hood; the item in nude tulle covered with sequined fringes and iridescent Japanese thread. All very long, with meters of ruffles and fabric.

Our source of inspiration was Loie Fuller, incredible pioneer of modern dance, who influenced the Art Nouveau movement, which in turn is reflected in the freedom, elegance and grace of this collection by Pierpaolo for Valentino. - Knight revealed - Pierpaolo and I wanted to create a fashion renaissance, totally free to speak a language based on beauty and fantasy.

Mariacarla Boscono, Vittoria Ceretti and the other models suspended in the air like angels, ethereal acrobats wrapped in long white dresses that come to life illuminating with colors and shapes evoking the vintage images of Le Cirque de la Lune, of movies directed by Robert Z. Leonard like The Great Ziegfeld and Bright Lights, iconic dancers like Harriet Hoctor and Loie Fuller, the illustrations of Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec but also the most dreamlike fragments of Federico Fellini's works.