The designer gave the the ability to walk around and linger over the skill and the exuberance of the Giambattista Valli Spring 2020 Haute Couture collection, a mastery of color and volumes.

“Sometimes the fashion world is too exclusive and sometimes it’s nice to be inclusive,” he said. “So I think it’s good to be able to open this to people in Paris, to be able to share what is my idea of Italian beauty, and where I’m from—especially in a time like this.”

His influences were straight from his heart—the epic beauty of the gardens and houses of the Amalfi coast; photographs and memories of Marella Agnelli, Lee Radziwill; and Jackie Onassis; the impeccable clothes they wore with offhand ease in the ’60s and ’70s. The collection featured the colors of bougainvillea, lemon gardens, roses, and pinks.

The surreal fish-eye angles of the lookbook images are his “homage to Avedon and Penn,” zooming in on feathered masks, extravagant fuchsia frills, swooshes of capes and drapes, yards of tulle trains, mad bubbles, balloons and juicy bows.

“Well, to decide to do an exhibition, you are editing, going straight to the point of what’s fabulous,” he said.