For the past few years, whenever I look at a new Valentino collection, there’s been an elephant in the room for me: eventually, the brand is going to have to find a way to do something that feels distinct from its long-popular Rockstud bags. Although Valentino’s signature studs aren’t going anywhere—and there’s no reason for them to—being too loyal to a specific signature can be aesthetically limiting, and after a while, the smart money is in branching out while still maintaining fidelity to a brand’s overall aesthetic. For Resort 2019, Valentino is once again trying to do exactly that.
Not only do Valentino’s Rockstud bags have a signature detailing that sets them apart, but the Rockstud line has long established other things about Valentino’s stable of day bags: they’re mostly medium-sizes and not too structured, with more rigid styles reserved for cocktail or evening occasions. In this collection, though, the most notable new day bag is super-structured in both its shoulder and top handle iterations, and it forgoes studs almost entirely—I had to zoom in my photo editing software to confirm that there are two, one at each end of the front closure hardware.
These bags feel like a significant departure for Valentino, but they still fit pretty comfortably in the brand’s aesthetic world, which has always been formal and feminine, even for daytime. I worry they might not be quite distinctive enough, though—I can imagine a lot of brands making something similar, and plenty already do. Check out both those bags and those more traditionally Valentino-esque below.
[Photos via Vogue Runway]
