A lta C o u tu re - Nadine Strittmatter

“Our collection is dedicated to the Russian ladies who lost everything but managed to build a life in the West,” Pier Paolo Piccioli told Achtung after the Valentino show.Above, Valentino’s Tsarist cavalry officer’s buttoned black velvet dress worn by Caroline Brasch Nielsen.Giambattista Valli, on the other hand, looked back to his native Rome. “Everyone has been asking me to create sunglasses, perfume, handbags or a diffusion line, so Iwent in the opposite direction and did couture,” joked Valli, after a splendidly ladylike show. He even included a sexy widow in lace and Spanish mantilla combo seekingpenitence in the Vatican, where several of Valli’s relatives are Papal knights. Non scherziamo. We kid you not.