Giambattista Valli Boards the Marrakech Express for Spring 2025 Couture
Like many fashion people, Giambattista Valli usually wears black, but once he sets foot in Morocco, which is frequently, his mood and style changes.
“When I go over there, I wear more print and color and everything,” the designer said Monday night before his 28th haute couture show. “Whether it’s Rabat, whether it’s Casablanca, whether it’s Marrakech, it’s a place where you arrive and really change: You change your posture. You change your habits.”
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A fresh breeze certainly blew through his spring collection, where shrubbery-dense tulle and 3D floral embroideries had been replaced by airy, puffball skirts; regal caftans in fancy jacquards glinting like 24-karat gold, and dreamy, tiered, mille-feuille gowns in fluttering silk chiffon.
His mood board backstage transported you to the peaceful, oasis-like Menara Gardens in Marrakech; the colorful, bohemian style of Talitha Getty in the ’60s, and the ornate decoration of palatial riads, like the one where Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn took tea in a famous 1951 photograph.
Valli opened his show with a grand, striped caftan with a watteau back that dragged along the narrow stretch of Azilal carpeting serving as a runway.
Each dress that followed had a unique character — sometimes plain and graphic with jutting volumes; sometimes densely decorated with beading, jacquards and opulent jewelry fit for a maharaja.
The designer nimbly expressed the beauty he finds in Moroccan culture with the finesse only possible with Parisian couture techniques. “That kind of conversation between cultures, I think it’s very important,” he said.
Megan Thee Stallion, attending her first high-fashion show wearing a draped, sherbet orange gown with a hood, fired up the camera on her smartphone to film ruffled cape gowns and dramatic fishtail volumes.
Every once in a while, a plain ivory look would appear. Valli was guest designer at Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week last year, and here were several draped and caped silk chiffon gowns beautiful enough to make one weepy.
Launch Gallery: Giambattista Valli Spring 2025 Couture
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