Valentino’s Fall/Winter 2024 Collection Crowns Black as the New Black
Valentino's Fall/Winter 2024 collection crowns black as the new black.
For Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection with Valentino, the designer pivoted away from his signature pop of bold colors (most notably, Barbie pink), and focused the entire show on the countless dimensions and shades of Le Noir, which is French for black. The show featured black in both a masculine and feminine sense, as well as exploring black’s own darkness and light. From 80s-inspired power suit dresses and sets (featuring the eras defiant shoulder pads to match) to the Fashion house’s unmistakable chiffon ruffle gowns, recontextualizing their romance, and elegance in contrast to the looks sleek for elevated professional workwear for the modern woman, essentially crowning black as the new black.
Interestingly, zip-up black hoodies became a must-have necessity over going out midi-dresses, while many of the sheer gowns showed major nipple (continuing the trend from the Spring/Summer 2024 collection). The line experiments with different shades of blackness from opaque to solid black, if anything the range of darkness is a commentary of power as well as the bleakness of the current state of the world. Piccioli is interested in reimagining the everyday through black, perhaps the universal color of every wardrobe, as a designer, he is inviting nuance to the staple color that is oftentimes referenced without introspection to the possibility of black’s range.
“I wear black as a uniform and I am aware of it - it allows me to focus on what’s around me, and I just like it. From the black I seek light, in black I refine my sight,” Piccoli says in a statement on the collection, hailing black as an opportunity to let in the light.