Mon avis : Monsieur Valentino nous a concocté ce qu'il fait de mieux, des costumes impeccables (si vous êtes grand et mince). C'est amusant, le retour du pantalon et de la veste en cuir noir (déjà vue dans d'autres collections). Le manteau de fourrure est beau, mais ne vaut pas le chinchilla de Gucci...

"The show’s backdrop of scrolling binary code instantly screeched The Matrix, but Valentino’s eye on the future remained mercifully untainted by any dystopian flimflam. Instead, the designer claimed inspiration from all the well-dressed young men he sees emerging from stock exchanges in London and New York. If that is indeed the case, those guys deserve an award this season, because Valentino’s collection was nearly flawless. Using the finest fabrics and the plainest palette of white, gray, charcoal, and camel, the designer wove a serene vision of sartorial perfection. Tone-on-tone pale shades—white, cream, bone, ivory—in velvet layered over cashmere (to isolate just one example) were so lulling, in fact, that the appearance on the catwalk of a pair of black leather pants, followed by a black leather jacket, had a jarring effect (even though they were in the softest plonge).
Sartorialism is a menswear theme for Fall 2007 (cued by the exhibition in Florence devoted to the influence of Savile Row), but Valentino’s signal achievement was that nothing about his attention to the details of a classic man’s wardrobe was odd, bland, or dull. (You don’t truly know tedium until a bespoke obsessive has opened his mouth.) Instead, there was a seductive ease and a genuinely aspirational (as in, “I wish I had that”) edge to a single-button double-breasted suit in a Prince of Wales check, never mind the layers of various shades of gray cashmere or the black knit cardigan coat with its buckled closings. A monogrammed cashmere dressing gown struck a bit of a bum note when it came to eveningwear, but you’re likely to be too taken with Valentino’s daywear to dress for dinner anyway." (Tim Blanks, www.style.com)

"Blanc, gypse, beige : Valentino, c’est l’élegance classique aux couleurs claires, le parfait vestiaire du gendre idéal ou de l’amateur de yacht. Le créateur assure que ce style s’inspire de celui de son bras droit, Giancarlo Giammetti, récemment classé par l’édition US de Vanity Fair parmi les 100 hommes les plus élégants de la planète. Valentino propose donc des pantalons serrés et des costumes bien coupés, qu’il assortit avec des pulls en cachemire ou en soie. Il ose le denim, stretch comme couvert de silicone, et pour le soir, un imperméable aux allures de kimono ultrachic, qui cache le retour du spencer." (Fabrice Paineau, www.vogue.fr)

Photos: Marcio Madeira