Valentino and Camera della Moda to highlight emerging designers

Maison Valentino is teaming up with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) to select a young guest designer each season to present on its Instagram platform.

The luxury fashion house said in a statement that the project will select one designer per season and offer them the opportunity to use its brand social platform to “present their work and message” to nurture a new generation of designers.

The first young guest designer, chosen by Maison Valentino and its creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, is Italian Marco Rambaldi, who will kick off the initiative in February 2022 during Milan Fashion Week showcasing women’s collections for autumn/winter 2023.

Rambaldi, born in 1990, founded his label in Bologna, Italy, in 2017, centred around inclusion, upcycling and gender-bending styles with a focus on knitwear and outerwear, including dresses, tops, shirts, skirts, trousers and T-shirts. He has also added leather accessories, such as bags and shoes, in recent seasons.

Valentino said that Piccioli choosing Rambaldi was not merely dictated by aesthetics, but the young Italian designer’s “authentic and tenacious attempt to break down stereotypes,” and how his vision was narrated on the catwalk with the use of street casting with different personalities and people.

Piccioli said in a statement: “We decided to approach designers whose sensitivity resonates with our core identity values. Marco Rambaldi’s show in Via Lecco was such a graceful and powerful celebration of humanity and a kaleidoscopic vision of beauty. That’s why we decided to start this new project with his collection and I am sure that this will be the beginning of something that will give new energies and inspiration to all of us.”

Emerging designer Marco Rambaldi chosen by Valentino as its first young guest designer

Commenting on being named the first young guest designer in the scheme, Rambaldi said: “The initiative with which Pierpaolo Piccioli and his team are supporting an independent brand like ours is emblematic of their ability to listen to the present moment, of farsightedness, but above all of great love for fashion. I believe that with this collaboration Valentino affirms the desire not only to continue to write its own history but to spread and nurture all Italian fashion in the decades to come.

“A Maison that works alongside an emerging brand breaks the boundaries, steps outside the box, regenerates connections. Thanks to this kind of attitude and to the incessant work of the The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, there remains the possibility to research and cultivate diverse talents. I think there’s a real need for that and I’m deeply grateful for it.”

Piccioli said that the initiative was driven by Valentino showcasing its ready-to-wear collections in Milan in September 2020 and March 2021 due to the pandemic, which led him to feel “how alive and pulsing this city is and how much it has to offer in terms of creativity and new ideas.”

“Being part of the fashion system it’s much more than a statement, I feel that that belonging to associations as FHCM [Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode] and CNMI gives Valentino and all members, the possibility to build new opportunities and strategies for our industry,” added Piccioli. “With all of that in mind, our chief executive, my team and I, alongside with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, decided to select one designer per season and offering her/him the opportunity to use our brand social platform as a stage to broaden their work and message.”

Carlo Capasa, chairman of Camera Nazionale Moda Italiana, said: “The promotion and support of emerging talents have always been pillars of our association, which in recent years has created and implemented projects with a view to valorising the creativity and vision that new designers bring to the fashion system. For this reason, I am happy that Maison Valentino and its creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, have decided to support new talents by offering them the resonant showcase of their social media channels, and that the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana can be at their side in the selection of the brands.

“This initiative also confirms the centrality of our Fashion Week on the international scene; Milan, energetic and vibrant, embodies the necessary elements for the coexistence of great brands and new talents that make the city a multifaceted hub that exemplifies the combination of creativity and know-how.”