Rome couture house expands Valentino Vintage in second edition

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Apr 20, 2023

The famed Roman couture house of Valentino has debuted its second edition of Valentino Vintage, almost doubling the number of boutiques with some rarefied fashion recycling.

First launched in 2021, Valentino Vintage invites fans and clients to bring their Valentino pieces to selected boutiques and exchange them for a new Valentino model – in an alternative shopping experience. The newly expanded list includes happening boutiques in Paris, London and Seoul, adding to the original four in Milan, Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo.
 
Beginning on Tuesday, the vintage boutiques have each been transformed with a unique Valentino Vintage installation, embracing the house's DNA. Customers participate in the exchange program, by bringing in their vintage garments for evaluation. After which they receive official coupons, redeemable in Valentino boutiques, with the right to exchange up to three garments. This edition of Valentino Vintage lasts one week until April 23.  

In Paris, the Vintage moment is taking place in Plaisir Palace, in the fashionable Marais district, guided by owner and former art collector Didier Barroso.
 
“We have had access to many clients wardrobes, focusing on clothes from 2014 until today, on a modern attitude with for instance color blocking” explained Barroso, refencing the period when Pierpaolo Piccioli was creative director.
 
“My idea was to mix things up, with a modern vintage take, like wearing cocktails with sneakers and Dr Martens. We are touching a young clientele which is now falling in love with vintage and discovering these little treasures!” Barroso added, pointing out a rich mix that ranges wide - couture double-face blazers; Miss V polkadot dresses; metallic couture blouses.

Each boutique also displays a series of looks from the house’s own vintage collection. Those are not for sale. Other key stores include Madame Pauline in Milan, a space that evokes the living room of a mid-twentieth century apartment; or Janemarch Maison in Seoul, where creative director Jung Jae Ok offers timeless and refined identity, within a French-style boutique in the bustling Seongsu-dong district. Further afield there is Recess in Los Angeles; The Vintage Dress in Tokyo; Rellik in London; and New York Vintage INC.
 
This year, Valentino Vintage also established an international creative partnership with 1 Granary to explore the fashion archives as a tool for future creativity by connecting to seven fashion colleges. As part of a donation initiative, Valentino will offer a selection of five Valentino Vintage looks to each associated school and to the 1 Granary community, in an innovative approach to passing on craftsmanship and know-how, while discovering the house's iconic codes of craftsmanship. The seven schools associated are Central Saint Martins in London; IED in Milan; Institut Français de la Mode in Paris; Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles; ESMOD in Seoul; Parsons School of Design in New York and Coconogacco in Tokyo.