After years spent studying shoes, creating them and imagining them on the feet of fantastic women, dreamy and seductive, fantasy-spinning temptresses from exotic lands, at last Duccio Venturi’s eclecticism has found its mood. Inspiration from other cultures, picked up during his globe-trotting days, marries perfectly with the style and eccentric tastes of a new way of ‘perceiving fashion’, bringing distinction to the Spring/Summer 2017 collection presented in Florence at the 90th edition of Pitti Immagine.
Pitti Immagine Uomo/Pitti Men returns to Florence with the 90th edition of the world’s most important fashion fair. The theme this year is inspired by Art and Fashion. A sort of back to the beginning with the involvement of the Uffizi, the Sala Bianca/White Hall – where Italian fashion was launched in 1951, Palazzo Pitti, the Palatina Gallery and the Sala degli Arazzi/Tapestry Hall. The reason being that behind every brand and behind every apparent frivolity there are studies, sacrifices and the creations of artists who, day after day, prepare their little masterpieces, so that when they are presented to us, they fill us with moments of pure joy.
This 90th edition of Pitti Immagine, the world’s most important fashion fair, sees the presentation of a new Spring/Summer 2017 collection with the now iconic and super feminine models designed by Duccio Venturi Bottier and produced in Italy using the best crafting techniques. With their decidedly modern spirit, they are true foot-jewellery, fantasies in natural ostrich feathers, colourful, light and dancing, which, during the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, enchanted the coolhunters when they were previewed in the Hotel de Paris’s sumptuous halls, on the feet of the star, Lorena Baricalla.
In fact, Lorena Baricalla, famous ballet star of Monte Carlo, singer, actress and events producer, is Duccio Venturi’s brand ambassadress: and it could hardly be otherwise. The creative artist sees in her talent and innate grace the ideal interpretation for his models. Lorena with class and lightness in her outfits, ‘wears’ the elegance and modernity of his creations.
Her style, which captivates all who see her, emerges as she treads the stages, presenting the big international events that she has created, in the presence of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco; walks the red carpet of the Croisette at the Cannes Film Festival and is present at Monaco Fashion week.
The Spring/Summer 2017 collection presented at the 90th edition of Pitti Immagine showcases a wide ranch of models in vibrant and brazen colours, a whirlwind of emotions which is characteristic of Venturi. Models which lighten your steps, like a dance, in a flash of reds and greens, bright blue, orange and violet … defining the style of a sophisticated woman about town. And then there are high-heeled, suede sandals, embellished with Swarowski, as well as the classic court shoe in crocodile – a classic but sexy approach.
For Venturi, the importance of the accessory, the woman’s shoe, is a definite image in which every detail has an absolute importance. His creative mind has given life to a fun style that is precious but ultramodern, with a charm and an approach which emerge in his iconic models and have become his unmistakable signature features.
By Cristina Vannuzzi