Giambattista Valli Honored, Presents 29th Couture Collection

Couture is a walk in the park

By Alice Sourdès

Yet another fashion season is upon us, and Giambattista Valli was ready to put on a show to wrap up the first day of the Fall/Winter 2025-2026 Haute Couture week. Haute Couture is Paris' one-of-a-kind time to celebrate craftsmanship, fashion, and legacy. For the Paris-based Italian designer, this season is even more so special. Following more than two decades of dedicating his life to fashion, Valli was decorated this monday as an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, following being decorated as a Chevalier of the order nearly ten years ago. 

Surrounded by friends of the house, the so-called original Valli girls, including models, fashion editors and socialites close to the designer, and other guests such as influencers Hearte Evangelista and Lena Situations, Valli opted for two-time festivities. After the official ceremony, awarding him with a medal from the French government, heartfelt speech from fashion journalist Suzy Menkes and cheers from day one clients, Valli hosted an original runway show, much closer to a presentation in its display, allowing all guests to appreciate the various designs and dresses from up close.

Giambattista Valli is honored as an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in a heartfelt ceremony prior to presenting his Fall/Winter 2025-26 colleciton during Paris Haute Couture Week (Images courtesy of Giambattista Valli)

For his 29th Couture collection, Valli led his eponymous brand back to a past whimsical modern times. On the moodboard? The paintings “Les Hasards Heureux de l'escarpolette” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard or any “Fête Galante” by Jean-Antoine Watteau. 

Valli’s Couture and craftsmanship meets 18th century aesthetics’ nostalgia. Valli invites us in a suspended timeline where garden picnics in grandiose dresses are the customs. The collection mixes pastoral scenes, muses parading around in bucolic, whimsical, nymph-like designs, a smell of fresh grass and hushed discussions. The designer’s take on the “fêtes galantes”, rich outdoor bucolic parties of the 18th century, is a celebration of past grandeur, laced with a modern outlook on nostalgia. Much like “sorbets melting in the sun”, this Couture collection is, to Valli’s own admission, playing with the house’s codes. Weightless yet sizable dresses are decorated by floral prints, bows, draped, frothy and pleated fabrics (Looks 3, 8 and 16).

Giambattista Valli Haute Couture: Looks 3, 8, 16 (Images courtesy of Giambattista Valli)

Valli transforms the future owners of his dresses, and for now, the models, as modern-day muses and bucolic fairies, adorned in bulging gowns and dreamy pastel hues. Giambattista Valli illustrates, once again, the voluminous dream-like designs his brand has made its trademark in this new collection, which is a swirl of draped flowers, pastel colors and romantic silhouettes.

Giambattista Valli Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26: Looks 1, 4, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18 (Images courtesy of Giambattista Valli)