In yesterday's post we looked at Valentino's latest Haute Couture collection and analysed it in conjunction with some key Roman locations and ancient costumes as well. Let's continue the thread for another day, but let's focus on one shade - pink - in conjunction with Rome.
Italian art and fashion journalist Irene Brin wrote in a diary entry dated May 1952 that a trend for American style was invading Rome.
Among the other venues and nightclubs around Via Veneto that had gone through a sort of "Americanisation" process there was also a place that featured live pink flamingos as the main attraction.
According to the journalist they were imported from Florida and shipped by plane in cages, so they were quite unhappy and prone to die quite soon.
Italian director Paolo Sorrentino included in his 2013 film La Grande Bellezza a puzzling scene featuring migrating flamingos surrounding an ascetic nun sitting on the attic of Jep, the protagonist of the film.
It's easy to wonder if Sorrentino ever read Irene Brin's diary, but you also wonder if Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino were inspired by Brin's diary entry or by Sorrentino's scene for some of the designs included in the Resort 2016 collection.
Inspired by Diana Vreeland’s "The eye has to travel" motto, the latter featured several different moods and ideas and quite a few mini and maxidresses, suits and pajama pants with hyper-decorative details and prints of flowers and pink birds flying. Are the birds on these designs meant to be flamingos or roseate spoonbills? Who knows, but if they are flamingos, the cinematic connection really works, especially when you consider the dreamy sky nuances on the screen and the various colours included in just one design.
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