A Poetic Contemplation of Modern Day Love
If there are close to 80 million people in the world, maybe there are as many definitions of being in love. So subjective yet so universal; while the poetic nature of love takes on different forms with the multifaceted structure of life, it sometimes becomes the inspiration itself.
Ever since man knew himself, he has sought a way to observe and express his own emotions. Throughout history, various ways have been used to describe these feelings, to express our inner world which is sometimes intense and unmanageable. Love, which is chemically defined by the secretion of the hormone dopamine, is perhaps one of the emotions that we have the most difficulty in putting into words. This feeling that enlarges the pupils of the eyes, makes our hands sweat, and that we feel in our stomach can be romantic love for someone, or the passionate excitement we feel in life. But one thing is certain, that it is one of the sources of inspiration that brings art to its most aesthetic form. Perhaps this is why the world’s most famous works of art are Klimt’s The Kiss, Magritte’s The Lovers, Rodin’s The Eternal Idol or Robert Doisneu’s The Kiss on the Sidewalk.
There are dozens of forms of love that correspond to every state of us. For this reason, each person’s own interpretation is unique, and even in these unique interpretations, we can catch a familiar nuance from ourselves. No matter how separate and distant we feel from each other, the universality of our experiences hits us, and the beauty of honoring love is revealed here. Blending fashion and human nature, Valentino presents its new campaign the Narratives II, which goes beyond traditional brand communication and honors all aspects of love with the magic of words.
Reflecting Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s fondness and passion for the literary arts, the Narratives series is a writing-only campaign. In a way, the brand pioneering print advertisements shows us that fashion can also be expressed with words. The focus of the campaign, which continued with Narratives II this year, is the study of love from the perspective of 17 international writers. Narratives II, which includes short stories, poems, essays and aphorisms about love, features various works from authors such as Leila Slimani, Farheen Mirza, Andre Aciman, Emily Ratajkowski and Murathan Mungan. Interpreting their own personal experiences and perspectives on love, these authors share what it means to be in love with this campaign.
Expressed in a touchy, personal and raw way, these feelings highlight Valentino’s ongoing love affair with literature, while blending fashion and the visual world with different branches of art. With this campaign, which you can see throughout the streets of New York, Valentino spreads love to the city, creating brief moments of joy, excitement, heartbreak and compassion that passersby can experience.
