Daily News: Valentino Colorfully Exceeds Couture Expectations, Balenciaga Debuts Uber-Exclusive Sneaker, Zara Honors Peter Lindbergh, And More!

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Valentino unveils haute couture collection in the heart of Venice

For his Fall 2021 Couture offering, Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli opted to showcase his latest in the ancient Venetian shipyard of Gaggiandre, traditionally enlisted as the venue of international art and architecture exhibitions. While his disposition is “fashion is not ‘art,’” the colorful, inspiring, and dramatic pieces felt like masterpieces in their own regard. And indeed,  Piccioli had enlisted 17 artists to collaborate with the atelier on 22 of the 82 designs that danced down the runway. Though only a fraction of the looks flaunted the motifs of artists—for example, an intarsia coat coated in an Andrea Respino painting crafted from 150 different fabrics and embellished with sequins—all spoke profoundly to both the craftsmanship and beauty that haute couture stands for. The color palette of highly pigmented hues and their occasionally muted counterparts was accentuated with tonal opera gloves, balloon sleeves, trailing capes, and jellyfish-esque fur hats. See some runway highlights below:

Balenciaga debuts ultra-exclusive running sneaker, only available at Kith

And by ultra-exclusive, we mean only 650 lucky customers will be able to say they go for jogs in their Balenciagas! For the launch, the brand tapped streetwear retailer Kith as a partner to debut and sell the $1,090 style—at its U.S. and Europe locations and online from today. Offered in three colorways and in both men’s and women’s sizing, the sneaker will feature Balenciaga’s signature logo on the tongue, a pull tab on the heel, and a custom joint Kith and Balenciaga-branded lettering that speaks to the limited-edition inventory number. Be prompt—one of the styles is already sold out!

(Courtesy/Kith)

Zara launches Tribute collection with Peter Lindbergh in honor of Franca Sozzani 

In honor of famed image maker Peter Lindbergh, Zara has debuted a first-of-its-kind Tribute collection, featuring some of the late photographer’s most beloved works. In the five-piece collection, 1990s-era black-and-white photographs of Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, and Lynne Koester, among others, can be found splashed across t-shirts and pullovers. Launched today, the collection was born of friendship, as the international retailer enlisted Lindbergh’s long-time friend Fabien Baron to curate the photographs and serve as creative director of the project. Furthermore, all proceeds from the collection will benefit the Franca Sozzani Fund, in honor of former Vogue Italia editor in chief Franca Sozzani (another close friend who worked alongside Lindbergh throughout their fashion careers.) The fund supports work on preventive genomics—specifically, the Global BabySeq Project—and aims to accelerate preventive medicine and address the racial disparities in the field of genomics. You can shop the  collection here. 

All about last night’s Belvedere Organic Fusions event

Last night, Belvedere Organic Infusions celebrated the launch of its NYC Belvedere Greenhouses. To celebrate, guests joined Top Chef judge and Emmy nominee Kwame Onwuachi, florist Original Rose, and Public School designer Maxwell Osbourne to select freshly-plucked ingredients from the garden in order to fashion Belvedere cocktails of their own. Among those in attendance were model Nina Agdal, actor Alan Cumming, DJ Mei Kwok, TV personality James Desantis, former Bachelor star Chelsea Vaughn, and more. A night full of cocktails and conversation—sounds like something we could get behind!

(Courtesy/Matteo Prandoni/Yvonne TNT for BFA)

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