Valentino launches Empathy campaign to aid Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital in Rome

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Apr 30, 2020

Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli has turned Valentino’s fall ad campaign into a social distancing experiment and called on friends of the house like Christy Turlington, Gwyneth Paltrow, Adut Akech and Naomi Campbell to be photographed by people with whom they are sharing confinement.

This men’s and women’s Fall/Winter 2020-21 ad campaign – which will break in magazines as of September and October – will be shot in the place where the concerned artists, models and actors are currently living. It will also feature Anwar Hadid, Ellery Walker Harper, Ghali, James Turlington, Janet Mock, Laetitia Casta, Laura Dern, Leon Dame, Liu Wen, Mariacarla Boscono, Mustafa the Poet, Rafferty Law, Rossy de Palma, Rula Jebreal, Tali Lennox, Tiffany Tang Yan and Vittoria Ceretti. 
 
All of the subjects are donating their time for free, since this #ValentinoEmpathy campaign will be for charity. The fashion house will make a donation of €1million to the Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital in Rome, the Italian hub fighting against Covid-19. 

Mayhoola – the Qatari royal investment fund that owns Valentino – and the Rome-based house have already donated €2million to the Italian Sacco Hospital and to the Protezione Civile; €1million to the French charity Fondation Hôpitaux de Paris; and €1 million to the Spanish field hospital within the Madrid Exhibition Center. The donation to the Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital will go in support of the upcoming phases of the pandemic.
 
Since showing the Valentino fall collection in Paris on March 1, Piccioli has spent the lockdown with his family in their villa in Nettuno, the seaside town south of Rome. Leading him to want to express his belief that, during confinement, we are all missing the human touch. 
 
 “We are always connected through empathy, as we are all made of emotions. We have become stronger through the connections within our own community. We are human beings full of energies and these energies are causing changes, positive ones,” he expounded.
 
In the campaign, everyone will wear a look from the Valentino Fall/Winter 2020-21 collection, making the former a collection of portraits. All “photographers” will be credited with the relationship that the talent has with them. 
 
“As the COVID-19 emergency will last longer than expected, the brand wants to be present also during what is to come in the near future. For this reason Maison Valentino wants to insure that the hub dedicated to COVID-19 will continue to operate effectively, and therefore have a constant spotlight on the situation,” the house added in a release.
 
Last Friday, Valentino announced that it is rebooting its production facilities as the lockdown begins to lift in Italy. It is sanitizing plants and workshops for prototypes, leather and footwear in Piedmont, Tuscany and Veneto, as well as preparing extra masks and protective gear in light of the fact that many fashion facilities plan to return to work on the peninsula – gradually starting on Monday, May 4.