This Video By Nick Knight Offers A Glimpse Of Valentino’s New Vision For Couture

The fall 2020 couture season started this past weekend, but it won’t fully end until July 21, when Pierpaolo Piccioli debuts his Valentino collection in Rome. Details for the live event are scarce, but we’re told it will “merge the human and digital worlds,” which could mean a variety of things: a show that’s livestreamed to the public, an experiment in virtual reality, an immersive 3D “phygital” world, or something that’s yet to cross our minds.

Today, we’re getting a glimpse of what to expect in a video by Showstudio’s Nick Knight. Produced “in dialogue” with Piccioli with a soundtrack by FKA Twigs, the one-minute clip is titled “Grace and Light” and depicts an abstract figure draped in fabric that ripples and flows through the air, illuminated by a shadowy, metallic light. The figure doesn’t seem quite human—we can’t see her or his face—but there’s still the sense of emotion and vitality essential to couture. Consider it a break from our preconceived notions about “digital experiences,” which tend to seem cold and hard-edged. This feels like something in between, and suggests Piccioli’s show will pose a similar meditation on light, movement, and the human body.

In a release, Knight credits Loie Fuller as a key inspiration, noting her influence on the Art Nouveau movement, “which in turn is reflected in the freedom, elegance, and the grace in this collection,” he says. “Pierpaolo and I wanted to create a fashion renaissance, totally free to speak a language based on beauty and fantasy.”

Piccioli adds: “A couture creation comes to life only through movement, light, colors, and music, but mostly through the human being beneath it, wrapped in it, welcomed by its fabric. The one who dances and the one who dreams. Couture is alive, and so is the dream.” Watch the video above, and come back on the 21st for Vogue Runway’s complete coverage of the main event in Rome.