Giambattista Valli doesn’t want to talk about Truman Capote, even though backstage at his fall 2024 runway show, his mood board had a couple of photos of the subject of Ryan Murphy’s hit series “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.”
“This isn’t about that, this is about my friend Lee” Radziwill, the designer was quick to say when asked about it, recalling how he “was 24 hours together” with her, going to parties, to her house, to Marrakech and beyond with the late style icon and sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who died in 2019.
“I miss that kind of quality,” he said, adding that she had a knack for pulling out a sentence that summed up an entire situation.
That quality, or really Radziwill’s taste, was at the heart of his strong fall 2024 collection inspired by her dual personalities of sleek, tailored and timeless vs. eclectic, boho and colorful, two style camps which also happen to be having a bit of a feud of their own on the runways this season.
The two were in harmony in the collection, which opened with a gorgeous black to-the-floor coat, beautifully tailored with three glinting buttons, worn over a white turtleneck, white pants and black flat shoes. It looked effortless, and that’s not always something you think of with Valli.
Little by little, the boho came out, but still respecting classic lines and silhouettes, as on an ivory minidress with Indian-inspired red paisley embroidery or, for mama, a longer-line tunic with shearling cuffs and hem.
Valli played with super short and super long lengths throughout, offering something for everyone, turning out a darling pale blue paisley jacquard mini coatdress with crystal buttons, and a flowery maxidress with a cropped paisley jacquard shearling lined vest, for example. Similarly, a salt-and-pepper tweed pantsuit was coupled with a darling coverall version sprouting shearling at the top of the bib.
India, interior design, impeccable bouquets, all of the elements of Radziwill’s cultivated life were here, in the colorful botanical threadwork on a sweeping white coat, the more ordered black floral embroidery on a khaki raincoat, and more. And the eveningwear, including a pale pink cutout gown gathered into a crystal belt, and shorter, sparklier, leggier styles, was “Swans” 2024.
That is if socialites haven’t all flown the coop, swept away by celebrities.
“Super cultivated people,” as Valli prefers to call them, are still out there. “You can not pay them to come under the light, they choose,” he said. “But it’s not a snobbish point of view. You can be selective in your life; it’s a question of one color over another, one flower over another, it’s a cultural point of view that I think more and more will be about the future.”
