Paris menswear fashion week: Valentino

 Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri served up their classic Valentino menswear silhouettes with a some stunning new decorative touches for Fall/Winter 2015.

The collection opened with graphic (both abstract lines, and camo) gray felted wool panel coats over navy blue suiting, the sockless models in black lace-ups. Then came some casual outerwear with chunky ice-white zippers (to match the scuba material) and a smorgasbord of shearling. The material was cut up, dyed and stitched together on coats, or on sweaters (embellished with asymmetrical leather chest pockets). Denim was another key theme, played off against the angular cuts of the collection's patterns. 

The designers are dab hands with fine embroidery (regularly shown on their women's pieces) and here it came as a butterfly motif. Other decoration included the brand's traditional play on camo, birds and their wings, maps of the solar system, and an indigenous pattern.

Checks were another big story: coming both as a red and black tartan and as a series of different countryside plaid patterns, some also embellished with four-leaf clover symbols on chests and lapels. The eveningwear was sharply focused this season, the Valentino designers pairing colored pajama silk tuxedos with matching print shirts.