Pierpaolo Piccioli

Pierpaolo Piccoli (b. 1967) is the Creative Director of Valentino. The Italian fashion designer has been at the luxury house since 2008. From 2008-2016 he was the co-Creative Director with Maria Grazia Chiuri. And before that, he worked at Fendi on their accessories lines.

Care and culture. That’s what “couture” means for Piccioli. Starting his process from a sense of emotion, the designer continues to pull from history—the Renaissance, the Victorian age, the Medieval era—for inspiration that results in meditative and romantic collections that can only be described as downright gorgeous. In interviews with Whitewall, Piccioli told us he works from a more instinctual place. Through a freedom he’s allowed himself only after mastering his discipline, he is focused on emphasizing the “beauty of diversity.” 

“The freedom to feel, and dream, the freedom to be reminded without nostalgia. Art and fashion can be always alive and pulsing. We always associate our emotions to a specific moment of our life, and the opera gown to me was an homage to Jamie’s work of course but also to her life. It was a statement and I wanted everyone to feel what I felt while working at it—a sense of solemnity and freedom,” said Piccioli. “Our senses should be celebrated with beauty. We need that. We deserve that.”