Since Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli’s appointment at the couture house in 2007, they have captured the DNA of Valentino and while generating fresh new energy.

Camouflage parkers, field jackets, shirts and lengthy duster coats made up the SS17 collection and celebrated the roots of this vision. “Determining whether a piece is completed even if part of it remains unfinished, reveling the authentic essence of the craftsmanship of the atelier,” read the show notes. “Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli celebrate and share the intimate roots of their vision converting with prompt and safe gestures of emotion into the product.”

A sense of incompleteness iterated through the show: unsewn liners, loose stitching and disrupted embellishments making for a playful overlapping effect and touching down on ethereal textures. Inspiration spewed directly from the exhibition at The Met Breuer in New York – ‘Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible’ – revealing the process of what the hand can construct. Seams should be seen and embraced, telling the story of a garment.

With rumours circulating that Maria Grazia Chiuri is to take over as the Creative Head at Christian Dior, it’s possible that this could well be the designer’s closing collection at Valentino. The show was profoundly established in the Italian fashion house’s core aesthetic, Chiuri and Piccioli pushing their own boundaries to deliver another beautifully balanced collection.