It was Valentino’s turn yesterday at Paris Fashion Week and Pierpaolo Piccioli chose for his latest presentation the Château de Chantilly, a stunning setting for a stunning collection. Look at this runway:

 

As you can see at the end of that short video, Pierpaolo was joined by the ateliers who actually craft the pieces. No idea if it was his intention, but I do wonder, given all the discussion about AI these days, whether or not this was a statement about the value of these skills to the couture artform. 

It was Kaia Gerber who opened the show walking her first couture runway in three years wearing an open white shirt over a pair of slouchy jeans. Or at least they look like jeans, right? According to Vogue, they’re actually “made of silk gazar, entirely embroidered with tiny pearlescent beads dyed in 80 hues of indigo to reproduce an actual denim texture”. 

Kaia Gerber walks the runway during the Valentino Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2023/2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week at Chateau de Chantilly on July 05, 2023 in Chantilly, France

This wasn’t the only denim look – another pair showed up later and the jeans were upcycled: 

As for those gorgeous chandelier earrings, they were repeated throughout the collection, and same goes for the bowed flat mules. Interestingly enough, a majority of the looks were sent out with these flats which I guess is to become the house’s new signature. I can’t really get with these shoes because they would never stay on my feet and I’m too accident prone and besides, they’re not all that flattering for my legs but I do love everything above the ankle that we saw on the Valentino runway. There’s an unbelievable silver cape that I would really, really love to see on an awards show red carpet and also an exquisite silver-white dress with a flexible metallic chest piece that would be a total showstopper at the Oscars. 

 

Also… a little Rihanna, because the red dress that’s shown here, how it wraps around the model’s head like a rose – a simpler version of Rihanna in white at the Met Gala, right? 

 

Going back to Kaia walking her first couture runway in three years, I can’t find any shots right now of Austin Butler watching it happen but he is with her on this trip to Paris because the night before they were seen holding hands while leaving Hedi Slimane’s birthday dinner, coordinated in chocolate brown. 

Kaia Gerber and Austin Butler out for dinner in Paris

There was another celebrity making her return at Valentino, too. It was Son Ye-jin’s first official appearance in over a year. Ye-jin married Hyun Bin in March 2022 and they welcomed their first child together last November. She’s been really, really low-profile on social media for a while. 

 

But in addition to BTS’s Suga, she’s also Korea’s most high-profile Valentino ambassador and here she is, in an excellent black and white outfit: 

Son Ye-jin at the Valentino Fall 2023 Couture Collection Runway Show at the Chateau de Chantilly on July 5, 2023 in Paris, France

I love the oversized blazer on her and the shape of this skirt, and that she chose to go with combats. Chic and also practical. Much easier to navigate the cobblestones. Note, too, that her manicure matched the clothes and here we get a better look at the shirt. 

 

More Valentino looks below: