17.05.12

At first glance it’s hard to find a common thread running through Valentino’s spring capsule collection, Timestrings. The studded peep-toe booties, satin flats, polka-dot platforms and bow-embellished kitten heels carry many of the brand’s signatures, but share none of them collectively. What all of the shoes do share is a handwritten time stamp — a numerical record of the amount of time it took to make each pair. For example, the sequence etched into a pair of silver chain wedge heels is 47.41’50?, denoting 47 hours, 41 minutes and 50 seconds. “When we talk about luxury and time, it’s clear that there’s a strong connection between the two,” says Maria Grazia Chiuri, one of the house’s two co-designers.

“Time is the new luxury, and luxury does not exist without time and the consciousness of a unique tradition.” Classic Italian craftsmanship still exists (Valentino is known for its old Florentine factories), but in an age of fast everything it’s easy to forget our Old World cobblers: the one devoted to flowers, the one who specializes in crystals and another with expertise in lace, for example. Pierpaolo Piccioli, Chiuri’s design partner, adds, “It’s nice to know that you’re buying a kind of cultural process.

Source: Deccan Chronicle