Valentino to join Paris Fashion Week virtually with live stream from Palazzo Colonna in Rome.

Valentino, the luxury Italian fashion house, is to participate in Paris Fashion Week virtually by live streaming its latest collection from one of Rome's most prestigious palaces.

The Valentino collection will be presented in the Sala Grande at Galleria Colonna, a masterpiece of the Roman Baroque, at 15.00 on Tuesday 26 January, as part of the influential Parisian fashion event.

The Italian maison will show its Code Temporal Haute Couture collection as part of a special streaming conceived by the creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli in collaboration with the British artist Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack.

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"Valentino will continue to participate in the appointment with the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode by unveiling the presentation on its official website, as planned in the Parisian calendar" - reads a statement from the fashion house - "The performance will be presented on digital channels in compliance with the current situation."

Valentino also stressed that the majestic location of the Sala Grande in Galleria Colonna was chosen "to highlight the mastery behind Valentino Couture."

The venue will also play a pivotal role in a film made by Del Naja that explores the haute couture process. The film, based on a script inspired by the theme of collage, was integrated with machine learning algorithms and modified spontaneously by German neural artist Mario Klingemman.

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"These unprecedented times that the world is facing and the continuous updating on covid-19 regulations, have led the maison to reconsider how to present its collections in a completely safe scenario," explained a statement released by Valentino.

Palazzo Colonna has been the home of the noble Colonna family for eight centuries, and its Galleria Colonna contains a stellar private art collection including works by Caracci, Pietro di Cortona and Veronese.

A highlight is its stately Great Hall, or Sala Grande, whose steps contain a cannon ball fired by the French Army from the Janiculum Hill in 1849 during the period of the Roman Republic.

The palace is currently closed to the general public under Italy's covid-19 restrictions. Photo Galleria Colonna.