Man, as human. A continual reflection of contemporary masculinities – the meaning of being a man today – the Valentino Le Ciel 20.24 Menswear Fall/Winter 2024-25 collection by Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli explores pure color as a tool of communication of ideas and ideals. Color liberated from societal convention, emancipated from expectations – blue, an archetypal marker of masculinity, is re-assessed and reconsidered, its language reconfigured, as is the character of modern men.
Color can be resignified – blue, traditionally feminine, became a signifier of maleness only in the past century, weighted with expectation and nuance. Here blue is freed, rethought, in turn echoing our transformed perception of man. Sky blue, itself emblematic of free-thinking, is both catalyst and vehicle for this examination of the meaning of men – an opening of perspectives, an expansion of horizons.
Traditional masculine wardrobe proposals and preoccupations are translated with a new identity. Softness, fluidity, delicacy and grace – a strength found in vulnerability, shifting our perceptions of the definition of masculine in clothing, its connotations of power and force. In a changed world, man must change too.
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This message is lead by clothes – reflecting ideologies and philosophies, fashioning ways to be. Embedded in the forms of garments are new approaches and considerations – tailoring is softened to create a gentle man, gestures combine the spheres of sartorial tailoring and Haute Couture, embroideries and embellishment that in turn changes not only surfaces but identities. Celebration of craft is a reflection of humanity. Figures from mythology are translated into intarsia across tailoring – stories of virtue and life, of universal moralities, they express idealism, timeless human values. The sculptural forms of the technique named by Valentino Altorilievo (High Relief) is used to open windows into the clothes – across the shoulders of jackets, they break and subvert a point of stereotypical masculine emphasis.
The clothes themselves are drawn from the timeless male wardrobe, grounded in reality. Because this fundamental change, of the meaning of masculinity, of the nature of men, has already become part of our reality.
