Valentino Just Turned Huge Hair Into Couture Week's Most Mindblowing Runway Trend

Is unapologetic glamour the neo-retro counterpoint to stripped-down 90’s minimalism? It felt that way last night in Paris, where Pierpaolo Piccioli closed out couture week at Hotel Salomon de Rothschild with Valentino’s latest collection—a renaissance-painting-meets-1960s mashup of luxury topped with backstage visionary Guido Palau’s latest stroke of hair inspiration: Voluminous, cloud-grazing bouffants that were teased out, brushed back, and smoothed to a hyper-glamorous mirror finish.
After seasons of sleek styles and slept-in second day waves, the skyscraping look ushers in a memorable comeback moment for the scene-stealing power of big hair—one that boasts a legacy of iconic women that testify to its star-making potential. Thought to be created for Marie Antoinette but modernized by Raymond ("Teasy-Weasy") Bessone in the mid-fifties, the bouffant has been favored by mythical creatures from Jackie O to Brigitte Bardot, its proportions even subtly reinterpreted in the decadent va-va-voom 1980s by a young Cindy Crawford.
Fast forward to 2018's Valentino show and it offered a form of chic grandeur as sweeping and dramatic as Piccioli's lavish capes and floor-dusting jewel-tone dresses. All it took was one glance at girl-of-the-moment Kaia Gerber to understand its transformative effects: with her deep chestnut hair pulled back to reveal chiseled cheekbones and a swan-like neck hovering above a swirling storm of pink feathers, the result was sheer runway magic.