The Thinker

Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, the great thinker behind the Roman fashion house, looks to sculpture to inform his poetic vision

- Alexander Fury

AGAINST AN uncharacteristically grey June Parisian sky, veined with fine clouds like marble, Pierpaolo Piccioli, the 52-year-old creative director of Valentino, crouches contemplatively, brow furrowed, chin resting on fist. He’s mimicking—intentionally—that famous Auguste Rodin sculpture The Thinker. A bronze cast is poised over his right shoulder, in the gardens of Rodin’s former home on the outskirts of the city. It’s the day after Piccioli’s Spring 2020 menswear show and less than two weeks until his Fall 2019 haute couture show. Piccioli has plenty to think about.

That said, the pose is somewhat paradoxical. Not that Piccioli isn’t a thinker: His work is embedded with intellect, often referencing works of art and literature. The latter reflects his studies at Sapienza University of Rome in the 1980s, before he switched to fashion design at Istituto Europeo di Design. Nevertheless, Piccioli works not from the head but from the heart. Or maybe the soul. “I follow my instinct now,” he says. “I think with this job you can change people’s perception.”