Valentino has some big plans for its couture shows, and the changes don’t have that much to do with the traditional fashion schedule.
In December, the fashion house is heading to New York City with an entirely new couture collection — its third this year, after the usual shows in January and July — to celebrate the opening of its Fifth Avenue store.
Then there will be the usual couture show in January — not even a month later, and shown between pre-collection and men’s wear, which means the designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli are doing four collections in less than two months. But we can discuss that mind-boggling choice another time. And before the next couture show, in July, they are decamping from Paris and having a show in Rome to celebrate the opening of the flagship there. (Having couture shows for major store openings seems to be their thing.)
The designers say they will be back in Paris in January 2016, but it seems to me, the point will have been made: Couture, of all collections, is about selling to customers, so you go where the customers are. Not where hidebound tradition says you have to be.
The choice is important because the brand, led by the Valentino chief executive Stefano Sassi, is one of the mainstays of the ever-shrinking Paris couture schedule. Its exquisite shows are among the most highly anticipated of the week, along with Chanel, Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier and Armani Privé. Valentino’s willingness to go its own way, even if just for a season, would have to give fellow fashionistas pause.
Especially because this is also the approach of Dolce & Gabbana, which unveiled its couture collection two years ago outside the Paris system and holds shows in Italy just after the formal schedule ends, inviting all its best clients for a luxury weekend. (Valentino is trying to coordinate with the brand for July.)
And because it’s similar thinking that prompted Tom Ford to announce that his fall 2015 women’s wear show, to be held next February, would take place in Los Angeles instead of London. London Fashion Week happens to overlap with the Academy Awards next year, and Los Angeles and the Oscars are major markets for Mr. Ford. For that season, he decided to go where the market is.
That’s three examples! That’s a trend.
We talk a lot about how the show system doesn’t make sense anymore, and how something needs to change, and yadda, yadda, yadda. But here is some real change, made for the most practical of reasons and with little fanfare, happening right under our eyes. To borrow a line from Nike, they just did it. And it makes me wonder how long the center can continue to hold.