Valentino Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2015: When In Rome

The autumn/winter 2015 haute couture season came to a close yesterday night with a show followed by dinner courtesy of the Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli. This took place not in Paris - the spiritual home of couture and where this great Italian house normally stages its collections - but in Rome, where both designers live and grew up. Piazza Mignanelli was the location. In front of the newly renovated - and magnificent - Valentino headquarters, in the shadow of the Spanish Steps, the artist Pietro Ruffo had designed a pale wood runway and seating reminiscent of the Roman Forum to accommodate no less than 800 guests, most of whom had flown in for the occasion.

In fact this was part of a three-day event – Valentino Mirabilia Romae, named after Mirabilia Urbis Romae, the original tour guides to the Eternal City, written more than 1,00 years ago. In celebration of the opening of the biggest Valentino flagship store in the world and including an exhibition of archive pieces installed in hidden places over a square kilometre its aim, the designers said, was ‘to depict through our eyes the beauties of the city of Rome’. It was quite a gesture. And one that was more than supported by the sheer beauty of the clothes.

Since taking over from Valentino Garavani in 2009, these designers have refined their dignified and quietly influential aesthetic and this was certainly their softest, most emotive and unashamedly romantic offering to date. Models, with hammered gold bands in their hair and heads held high, moved gracefully around the space in clothes that were uniformly gentle, quintessentially feminine but always imposing – never saccharine sweet. Here were gladiator dresses in gleaming gold, goddess gowns in everything from chiffon and signature lace to inky – and immaculate - silk velvet, fragile slips and the austere capes that have become a signature by now. Of course, there was Valentino red too, the vibrant hue that is also very much part of this label’s handwriting looked more desirable than ever.

Overall, this was an expression of the confidence to be gentle – even ethereal – and for that it quite took the breath away. And although these are clothes of a sort young girls might dream to wear – they are nothing if not fit for a princess - they are never difficult or overwrought. As women of all ages and body shape dressed in past designs went to prove, Valentino designs are infinitely adaptable: exquisite but easy to wear. And that is no mean feat.

At the end of the show the designers were afforded the first standing ovation of the season: Signor Garavani, in pride of place front row, Tilda Swinton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alber Elbaz and more rose to their feet in appreciation.

Dinner was served at Villa Aurelia high above the city in its legendary hills: a perfect finish to an extraordinary day.