What a superb new Valentino Fall/Winter 2023 Black Tie campaign! It soars sky high in creativity and self-assurance with Kaia Gerber playing a role that defines the very concept of je ne sais quoi.

Kaia’s acting lessons are having huge impact on her self-expression in the last year.

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s vision of luxury for rebellious rule-breaking, smarty-pants fashion lovers with unbridled confidence and positive spirit is unmatched.

“I find Pierpaolo deeply, deeply poetic and optimistic,” Andrew Bolton, curator-in-charge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, told The Washington Post in 2020. “I never have negative, pessimistic, critical thoughts when I leave a Valentino show. They really are uplifting. They’re full of joie de vivre.”

A new museum show ‘Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion’ arrives just in time for London Fashion Week. Opening September 13, 2023 and closing January 7, 2024.

The Valentino Black Tie Campaign is very sophisticated compared to the Bloomsbury crowd. But the refined punk undercurrent and insouciance are original and perfect pitch in this moment.

Kaia Gerber truly loves a good book. She possesses an intense intellectual curiosity and confidence for real, so that she is not the victim of her possessions in her own life or in the Valentino Black Tie campaign film. Kaia takes a big role and executes it with perfection.

Gerber is boss as she struts around Huntington, Long Island’s Oheka Castle. Even the fact that the film is shot in New York and not Europe is a rebellious gesture that succeeds.

Make no mistake, though, the campaign respects the pursuit of beauty, harmony, opulence — and yes, privilege. Having written that word ‘privilege’, Pierpaolo Piccioli is a headliner on the urgent need for us to be changemakers. The designer is never in retreat in our 21st century world attacks on progressive values. Piccioli leads with principles.

Steven Meisel’s images emote a fresh but substantative aura. Slightly vintage, the black and whites perfectly suit the set. The pace of the film is pleasantly hurried — more American than Italian or Roman. Yet, the choreography of the fashion outfits handoffs is seamless, with every gesture perfectly timed to the nano second.

Jacob K does a fantastic job of styling Kaia in gender-bending feminity. The neckties are precious — especially worked against white ruffles.

There’s so much going on in this film, and yet it does not feel overdone. We don’t lose our way because a confident clarity rules this audacious, beautiful, inspiring Fall 2023 Valentino Black Tie campaign.

Valentino Black Tie wins the day. It’s a big wow! ~ Anne