Pierpaolo Piccioli was talking about suffragettes at a Red Valentino appointment this morning. Doesn’t that feel like a spot-on instinct? If anyone’s going to fix the many messes that men have created, it’s us ladies. As we move into 2018, there’s much work to do – from voter registration and campaigning for female candidates in next November’s midterm election, all the way on down to restaffing the anchor desks on the networks’ morning news shows.
With their can-do spirit and persistence in the face of adversity, the suffragettes are excellent role models for the 2010s, nearly a century after their landmark 1920 victory. Just asking… is it time to bring back the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment?
The suffragettes, as it turns out, were pretty inspirational in the wardrobe department, too, with their long white dresses and shapely but attenuated suits. Piccioli made glancing tribute to them with a creamy lace dress piped in black velvet and another look that combined a tailored double-breasted white coat over an ivory frock.
That was about it in the way of overt references. You could make a connection between the checked cape here and women’s outerwear of the 1910s, but only if you tried hard. “It has to be contemporary, of this moment,” Piccioli said of the collection. The Pre-Fall season is just getting started, but he landed on a handful of trendlets that have already emerged, among them polka dots, animal stripes, and that aforementioned check.
Still, you’d never mistake this for a product other than Piccioli’s, what with all of the pretty sheer dresses.
This article first appeared on Vogue.com
