Keira Knightley in Valentino Couture - The Imitation Game Opening Night Gala Screening

Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley attends the London Film Festival Opening Gala screening of The Imitation Game at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. Fifty-five looks for fifty-five operas. The Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli were after something new for Couture this season, and they found it in the age-old tradition of opera.

Valentino Fall 2014 Couture Collection

This season designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli turned to that most Italian of musical art forms for inspiration- the opera. Using the stories and musical moods created by different operas to link this show’s divergent designs. The opening white semi sheer tulle dress, covered in black embroidered musical notes that recreated the melody of La valse de Violetta Valéry from La Traviata, set the tone and was the most literal interpretation of the chosen theme. But from there the Valentino duo explored a wide range of fabric treatments and proportions to represent their favorite operas.

This show was a sartorial Opus of the highest order. It’s melody will surely linger in the mind long after this spring/summer 2014 couture season fades from memory.