Image via Style.com

If it’s going to be a look of the day from Valentino, you better believe it will be something in “Valentino Red!”

I held my breathe as the design transfer went from Signore Valentino to Alessandra Facchinetti and then rapidly onto Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli — what would be embraced in the designs besides the signature red color? How would the house that Valentino built be elavated upon, and not deviated from, by the new designers. So far, so good, I must say, and this dress from spring 2009 is a great example, in my opinion, if not an excellent example how the designers have embodied the sexy, sophisticated aesthetic of the brand, while moving it into a future-thinking model. The draping, the twists, the drama — very Italian, and very modern.

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