Knowing Pierpaolo Piccioli‘s skills and abilities of making fashion that sparks deep emotions, the designer could do much better for spring-summer 2023 than covering his silhouettes in Valentino‘s “V” logos. At least, there’s no sight of last season’s PPPink, which from a good-looking idea turned to a curse of street style. But the opening look, a caped dress in the palest of beiges that was graphically emblazoned with the house’s logo, just didn’t feel good. The marque was over absolutely everything, including the gloved bodysuit worn under the dress. It was even painted across the model’s face. Not everything went through logomania in this line-up, but in general this was one of Piccioli’s most uninspired collections in a long while. Piccioli focused his look on mostly flowing, undulating dresses, short or long, some scissored away at the waist (inspired by the slashed canvases of artist Lucio Fontana) and soft suiting that was androgynous with or without the feathery trims, in myriad shades of ivory, beige and brown, his celebration of the beauty of every skin tone. During the course of the show, he started to introduce bright saturated colors as a contrast – electric blue, acid green, emerald green – which looked at their most dazzling when deployed for the dream-it-and-we-can-make-it technical marvel of his pleated sequin pieces, such as a shrug it on coat, or a sweeping floor-length backless evening dress. But in overall, the offering felt rather flat and repetitive, noting that there were over 90 looks.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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