Valentino Is Bringing a Runway Show to New York

Here’s the exciting news: Valentino plans to stage a runway show in New York City early next year.

Here’s the modifier to tamper the excitement a bit: it will only be to show the house’s pre-Fall collection.

Here’s another interesting bit: It seems like Valentino is considering making New York something of a regular home for its pre-season collections.

Valentino‘s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli tells Women’s Wear Daily he’ll show the house’s pre-Fall collection on January 11th somewhere in the Big Apple. Though, no further details, like where exactly, were confirmed. Though, it will likely be a low-key event.

However, Piccioli teased the possibility that this won’t be the only future Valentino presentation to debut in New York.

“I am thinking of New York for June, too,” he told WWD. “New York seems to me the ideal location for the pre-collections, it’s international and has such charm.”

Of course, anytime a historic European house deigns to show on our side of the Atlantic it’s notable. Valentino last came to New York in 2014 when it showed a special-edition all-white couture show in the city.

Though, choosing a destination, any destination at all, for a pre-Fall collection is also interesting. Especially for Valentino.

Pre-Fall and resort (or sometimes dubbed Cruise) collections are shown in between the main seasons and are usually made up of wearable, serviceable garments aimed at taking a place in core consumers’ day-to-day wardrobes. They’re usually debuted on the fashion house’s own schedule and not tied to a fashion week schedule. The bigger brands like Chanel and Dior tend to show resort collections in destination cities across the globe, but most brands announce the collections merely with the release of a look-book.

That’s the way Valentino has typically done it. Their past few pre-season shows have been documented on models against gray backdrops. So the brand traveling anywhere at all to show the collections is quite a change.

Though, Piccioli says that the New York shows won’t be “spectacular events,” it’s still notable that they’re having any event at all.

Piccioli though is settling into leading the house on his own. After his former co-director Maria Grazia Chiuri decamped to Dior earlier this year, Piccioli showed his first solo show for the brand this past month in Paris to generally positive reviews.