AUTUMN WINTER 2018 COLLECTION

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

Valextra invites us to experience an enchanted place both natural and surreal, a moment of calm and lightness that mixes nature and mystery: it’s a magical forest that transports us back to our ancestral roots to live our lives at a slower pace.

In the heart of Tuscany, Italian artist Deva Manfredo’s sculpture garden forms a fitting backdrop for the collection. An embodiment of a childhood fantasy’s enchanted forest, this magical park is dotted with rudimental sculptures, created with combinations of found objects and stones. The collection is placed in conversation with sculptural works that suggest anthropomorphic figures, totemic constructions or geometric compositions, taken over by the human touch as much as by nature. The bags are perched onto these sculptures, like the imaginary inhabitants of this magical kingdom; small, enchanted surprises one encounters across a walk through the forest.

The bags for this season, based on Valextra’s most iconic pieces such as the Iside, Brera, Triennale and Twist, as well as the latest addition, the Passepartout, are reproduced in the new ‘Parigi’ calf leather, a smooth, semi-matte material that complements the rich palette presented for this season. Throughout the collection, a chromatic narration follows the natural cycle of sunrise, daylight and sunset, with colours inspired by the light from dawn to dusk. Each bag is ornate with a contrasting pop of colour, a geometric leather marquetry motif like a small charming surprise discovered in the forest. A first family of bags features cold colours, from yellow, green, blue and white to more delicate tones such as cerulean blue, beige and aubergine, through to the sunset-inspired palette of red, gray and yellow.

A series of add-ons completes the collection, small additions to the multilayered, rich collection that contribute to this fairytale narrative. Each piece can metamorphose into infinite personalities with Transformers such as leather shoulder straps, metal chains and woven ropes, that change the bag’s functionalities and aesthetic. Each bag can also be dressed up with double-face down feather duvets; light jackets that protect the leather pieces from the elements and gives them a more casual feel. This metamorphic forest is completed by a series of large-scale illustrations by Italian street artist El Gato Chimney. These magical vignettes represent a series of mythical animals which combine zoomorphic characteristics with esoteric, folkloristic details printed on silk scarves that are part accessory, part oversized tableau.

The world of Valextra’s Fall/Winter collection is a place where absurd becomes reality, a slight change of course that merges the brand’s aesthetic rigor with eclectic influences and an aura of enchantment.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY MARCO PIETRACUPA

EL GATO CHIMNEY SILK SCARF – BEAR, SU027