Paris Fashion Week: Valentino designers find their edge

The provocative and arty images of experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger that were projected on the walls around the runway show space were a hint that this season, Valentino was setting its sights on the cool girls. And why not? The house scored a major Golden Globes red carpet coup in January, dressing the coolest girl of them all, Chloe Sevigny, in a smoky lavender ruffled confection.

Designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paulo Piccioli presented their most successful collection for the house to date, by taking Valentino's signature ruffles in a direction that was more architectural than prissy, and offering more daywear options.

A row of frills snaked down either side of a long-sleeved winter white shift dress cut with a flared hem, while a black coat with a ruffle placket was finished with a leather lace flounce. Evening gowns were in the same spirit as Sevigny's, with ruffles writ large, some worn with cropped ruffled leather jackets on top.

And the pointy-toe flats that fastened with three delicately studded straps over each ankle were among the fall runway season's most covetable shoes.

-- Booth Moore, reporting from Paris

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Photos: Valentino's fall 2010 runway in Paris. Credit: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times