ONE LOVE ONE HEART
Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli brings us together when we’ve never been further apart.
By LAURA BOLT
Nothing has gone as planned this year. As we all grappled with isolation and anxiety, learned what it means to live in the time of a pandemic, and saw the dawn of a new era of social justice, it’s only natural that we began to ask ourselves questions about the nature of fashion and our relationship to it. Now, we wear masks to protect ourselves, and others, as a guard against an invisible threat. This time last year, the clothing we wore to leave the house functioned as a mask of a different kind - showing others who we are and who we want to be, displaying everything from power, to cultural heritage, to artistic loyalty. Fashion initiated conversations and told stories without ever exchanging a word. In 2020, the act of getting dressed is driven by a new sense of practicality, but some people have found these new constrictions to be a powerful tool for self-reflection. Who are you when no one is there to see? How do you want to look if you aren’t defined by an office, a party, or a catwalk? What do you want to wear to find a sense of comfort and peace in a world that is harder and harder to recognize? As we start to shift our ideas of who we are and what we need, we might find that some things we took for granted are no longer available to us - but maybe that’s a positive thing.
As time goes on as we settle into a new normal, we look for ways to translate our old skills and ideas about the world into its current incarnation, one which we’ve never seen before. Fashion is no exception. What is the role of design now? Has our perspective and our idea of what’s important shifted beyond fashion?
These are all questions that Pierpaolo Piccioli has been thinking about during these unprecedented times. The Creative Director of Valentino has shifted his focus to empathy centered design that highlights our humanity and how fashion can connect us during this unfathomable time of social distancing. Reflecting on how his mindset has shifted this year, Piccioli says, “I feel the responsibility of transmitting my idea of the world through an aesthetic code, the only one I have. Now more than ever, we designers should rethink our priorities and make this critical reflection immediately active. Less numbers, more value to human creativity and emotions.”
For Piccioli, the role of empathy in fashion is more important than ever. “Empathy means being able to perceive other people’s feelings and acting consequentially. This leads to respect, solidarity, sharing of ideas. I cannot imagine anything more positive than this,” he says. “We should stop looking at our small single realities as divided from others which are apparently far from us. The pandemic in itself has proved a universality of the human experience we should all recognize. Sharing a common purpose makes this purpose more achievable, we are not islands.”
Of course, empathy has always been an important part of the designer’s toolkit. While pure artistic inspiration is always a driving force, understanding how and why people dress is the key to creating collections that strike a chord and become part of people’s lives in a considerable way. Generally speaking, designers don’t produce their work in a vacuum, but instead as part of a symbiotic relationship with their customers. There have been few times in history when so many people across the globe are experiencing the same fears and challenges - certainly we can use this common jumping off point to find a greater level of understanding and compassion for others.
As we navigate the realities of social distancing, we, like Piccioli, can begin to see design as a tool for connection. Design gives us a common language to work from, and serves as a connective fiber of discussion, reference, and inspiration. Fashion can spark and foster conversation, and help remind us of a larger sense of togetherness.
Just because we’re re-evaluating our priorities doesn’t mean that fashion has gone by the wayside. Instead, this global pandemic has given us the opportunity to use our clothes to display values that clothes had no way to express before. Wearing a mask in public shows empathy and respect for others, characteristics that deserve to be as contagious as the virus. Dressing for yourself has power - it’s one small thing you can control in an ever-changing world. It can connect you to who you were before, and redefine who you would like to be when the world finds its way back to normal eventually.
In other words, it’s time to get back to the basics. The old adage that “necessity is the mother of invention” rings especially true this year. “The pandemic has not changed my creative process in itself, but it surely reinforced the centrality of human resources, since the technical ones were necessarily limited in terms of production,” says Piccioli. “This has brought me back to a more romantic idea of designing. I drew a lot, enjoyed a special kind of concentration which had been hard to achieve in during the last years, and reconciled myself with my natural habitat in any possible way.” Whether it’s clothing, family, or culturally, connecting to your roots can be a powerful way to stay grounded during unstable times.
Going back to the basics can be a blessing in fashion, reminding designers and consumers of the origins of the brands they love. One potential silver lining is the chance to re-evaluate some of the practices that held the industry back. The system of producing items in a collection and then manufacturing them for a retail selling months later now seems outdated and irresponsible - especially in an industry that has been known to overproduce by as much as 40% each season. As consumers become more thoughtful and economically conservative, fast fashion and traditional collections need to evolve with the times. In an age where time, resources, and manufacturing are limited, we see an opportunity to really listen to what people want and how to produce those items in a more effective and responsible way.
Limited options also mean finding new solutions when it comes to creating other aspects of fashion. We’ve already seen examples of artists, models, and influencers creating content in collaboration with brands from their own homes, imbuing them with a sense of individuality and unexpected perspectives. Instead of a limiting force, it can be a testament to how connection and collaboration can rise above circumstances, showing that we can still find ways to come together to create beauty in the world. Piccioli explains, “Some processes which were already active in my mind were indeed boosted and intensified by the pandemic experience. It was a confirmation more than a revelation and it strengthened my self-consciousness about what is really important to me: people. During this hard time our main obstacle has been the lack of human contact, but we managed to overcome it pretty well by keeping our everyday interaction active and more fruitful than ever. Once again, I realized the power of creativity.”
Creativity has taken on a new meaning where new constrictions provide unexpected opportunities to create. Inspiration can be found in the most unexpected places - and it often has to be. Designers are being given a chance to solve new problems and answer different questions than they’ve been faced with before. What kind of design cultivates the perfect harmony between finding comfort in a new atmosphere, while also inspiring hope and confidence? And finally, how does design need to function to match form and function for safety?
When we don’t have answers about the present or the future, it opens up an infinite canvas on which to imagine the future. With a pandemic forcing us to focus on our ideal priorities and a resurgence of social justice, we can look through the cracks of chaos to see the light of change. When it comes to the potential of design to influence positive change, Piccioli finds a sense of hope and optimism, saying “I confide in a more inclusive society with equal opportunities for everyone. The communities that have resisted through time and space should be enhanced and encouraged, enlarged and enriched. I am confident the Valentino community will be one of them.”
When you start from a point of empathy in design, you can imagine connections that weren’t possible before, and designers, artists, and brands can help outfit a different kind of tomorrow and continue to be part of important conversations that change and define our relationships with each other and the world around us. Seeing fashion as a tool for change is a valuable way for the industry to find their footing again and be part of the landscape of the future. Piccioli answers this design dilemma “by dreaming bigger than ever. The dialogue between rationality and fantasy gives interesting results only if continuously challenged. From my point of view this uncertainty, although caused by an incredibly traumatic event, may also become a good friend of ours.”
We can’t control change, but we can control our reaction to it. What would happen if we met fear with compassion, uncertainty with hope, and destruction with art? What does a future that’s built on compassion look like? If we can follow Valentino’s lead and ask those questions from a place of empathy, the answers might be exactly what we need.
