Valentino set to launch first-ever exhibition in the Middle East

Italian couture brand Valentino will be launching its very first fashion exhibition in the Middle East, in Doha, Qatar, reported The National on Sunday.

Titled 'Forever Valentino', the show will be held in M7, Doha's cultural hub.

The show will be both a retrospective – looking back at the work of founder Valentino Garavani – as well as contemporary, examining the work of its current creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli.

Garavani spent 46 years at the helm of his namesake label, stepping away in January 2008. He presented his very first couture collection in 1962 at the Pitti Palace in Florence.

Garavani then passed the baton to the joint partnership of Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri. That collaboration continued until 2016, when Grazia Chiuri left to design for Dior couture.

Piccioli has now been single-handedly presiding for Valentino for the past six years, and has been busy shaping Valentino to stay true to its dna, while also remaining relevant within the current fashion climate.

The label is known for its feminine and flamboyant designs, with the color red becoming something of a trademark, although the house recently collaborated with Pantone with a collection done completely in a unique shade of pink.

For the Fall/Winter 2022-2023 collection, Valentino collaborated with the Pantone Color Institute in order to create a unique identity, coming up with a shade of pink for the collection. This collection came to be known as the ValentinoPinkPPCollection.

Valentino was bought by a Qatari group in 2012 for about $857 million, and quite a few pieces from its priceless haute couture collections across the decades is going on display for the first time in the region, according to The National.

'Forever Valentino' is slated to run from October 28 to April 1 at Msheireb Downtown Doha.