Three years ago, a Valentino couture show featured a cast of 65 models, 43 of whom were Black. At the time, the Italian heritage brand’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli took to social media to write, “Couture is a dream. Although it celebrates uniqueness, which is a synonym for diversity, it has always meant to be for white people.”

As a riposte to the white-washing of the fashion industry, Piccioli’s collections for Valentino are a prismatic rainbow of acceptance and a celebration of what it means to be deemed as different. Yesterday’s show, named Anatomy of Couture, was no exception. The brand’s made-to-order dresses dazzled more than ever on bodies that look real and relatable and marked a step in the right direction of making couture a diverse corner of the industry. 

“The message does not change in its purpose, which is to convey beauty, but in its welcoming expression,” the designer said of the collection, which was shown at Paris’ Place Vendôme.

It wasn’t just the buffet of normal-sized bodies that made yesterday’s Valentino show so special though. It was also the casting of older women, many with grey hair, sporting bedazzled ballgowns and leather trench coats that added to the breath of fresh air. 

“This collection interrogates the body, this collection challenges the canon. It does so, after a long reflection, and it does so in order to represent a wider idea of beauty,” Piccioli wrote on Instagram. “I wanted humanity to be the beginning and the ending point of the dream and of the magic of couture.”

After working at Fendi for almost 10 years, Pierpaolo Piccioli joined Valentino as an accessories designer in 1999 and was appointed as the brand’s creative director in 2016.

Images: courtesy of Getty.