Valentino Resort 2013 Collection

What a difference a few months makes—and they must have been especially good ones for Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri.

While the duo delved deep into sleek black with a folksy bent for fall, Valentino’s resort finds them in a whole new headspace and a much, much brighter state of mind.

The collection is bursting with pink and lace, pretty beading, and overt expressions of joie de vivre in a nearly breathless celebration of fashion’s whole candy shop of sweet embellishments.

That kind of optimistic exuberance was a hallmark of the haute sixties, of course, and the designers looked to the era to provide a through-line for their perfect party dresses in demure silhouettes. 

Mrs. Betty Draper would have looked great in a grand tutti-fruitti number, while Mrs. Megan Draper might go for one of the duo’s more modish animal prints. 

But don’t take that the wrong way; it wasn’t a retro fest, either. There was real-world appeal in gentle sun-faded florals, in airy peplum tops paired with slim trousers, and in a flock of minutely bead-encrusted short lace dresses.