Rihanna, Angelababy and Zhang Ziyi wear his fabulous dresses: fashion designer Giambattista Valli on new Mytheresa collection and Asian clients who ‘embrace beauty’
- Valli feels his Mytheresa collection suits the post-lockdown joie de vivre, with dresses in sorbet shades that ‘remind you of the colours of gelato in Rome’
- He says he loves his Asian clients because they don’t give up their femininity, something he finds very modern and fresh
When Paris-based Italian designer Giambattista Valli launched a haute couture line more than a decade ago to complement his ready-to-wear offerings, “people thought I was crazy”, he says in a recent interview.
Haute couture is the epitome of luxury dressmaking, catering to only a smattering of clients: very wealthy women who can afford one-of-a-kind, custom-made creations who don’t balk at the idea of paying up to US$100,000 for a dress.
“Couture is important to the brand because our clients want something extraordinary and buying haute couture is like collecting art or a design object, and it’s wonderful that [my couture clients] support an art that would otherwise disappear,” Valli says.
The designer is not one to follow trends or conventional wisdom, and you certainly won’t see him jumping on the bandwagon of luxury brands catering to sneakerheads and streetwear aficionados with hoodies and sneakers.
“I just can’t. When everyone was wearing sweatpants at home during the Covid lockdown, I was dressing up at home. You always have to stay true to yourself even when things are going in a different direction.
