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Glittery faces and perilously high platforms at Valentino’s spring/summer 2021 haute couture show

 (Valentino)
(Valentino)

What will you wear for your first night back out on the tiles?

If Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli has anything to do with it you might well be rocking a face full of golden glitter and some A&E-riskingly high platforms.

While most of us haven’t so much as touched a pair of heels this year, the Valentino Spring/ Summer 2021 collection, unveiled via an audience-free runway show filmed in the sublime gallery of the Palazzo Colonna in Rome this afternoon, was chock-full of them.

From golden glittery slouchy knee-high boots to metallic platform Mary Janes, these were shoes ready to stomp and shimmy (or totter?) onto a dancefloor.

Accompanying the disco feet, several of the models came with disco faces entirely covered with gold glitter, courtesy of makeup legend Pat McGrath.

Valentino
Valentino

Overall though the collection felt more subdued than Piccioli’s recent shows, which have tended to embrace a riotous colour palette and plenty of print.

Today’s offering went long muted beige and browns, offset by flashes of neon. And the juxtaposition was felt in the clothes themselves; with sophisticated culottes, pencil skirts, tailored trenches and understated knitwear given unexpected edginess with sequin bonnets and boleros, sparkling turtlenecks and metallic accessories.

Today also marked the first time we have seen menswear grace Valentino’s couture runway.

Watch the full show video here