then you discovered artsy.

Once upon a time...there was a little mermaid. She slept deep down in the sea, under rolling wave foam blankets. She played amongst spongy sea-cucumbers and forests of coral, she swam with seahorses who's skeletons shined neon purple and green, and, at sunrise, she surfed with the dolphins. And, she thought;

"Who could ask for anything more"?

Until one summer evening, while she was laying in the waves and counting stars in the milkyway, a shadow slightly touched her hair. She turned to see that the shadow was a bundle lying on the edge of the beach, rising, and falling, falling with each passing wave.

She stayed perfectly still, while the bubbles around her softly melted into the water.

She saw the moonlight dance on the shadow, like tiny sparks colliding.

A bone-white length from the bundle rested on her outstretched palm. Part of it was more softer than an anemone. Silkier than the thinnest seaflower. Layered over the top was an organza which felt like crinkly dry kelp, folded and pressed into rippled coral shapes, on a fan of material like the end of her fishtail.

She looked even closer, and there were millions of tiny clear rocks, now glistening stars and rainbows, on a bodice molded like a clam's shell. Neatly stitched on the inside was a word she had never read before: "Valentino Couture".

The little mermaid closed her eyes for an eye-flutter. And wondered about what sort of creature would shed such a skin? None that she had seen before!

She breathed in and it smelled of music festival - dancing and lights... spilled drinks and freshly cut lawn.

But as she mused in her imagination, she noticed that the thing was becoming heavier and heavier, soaking the sea into itself.

"I wonder what this could be for? I cannot see how anything  was able to live in the sea in this"!

Remembering a time she was chased by a blue-ringed octopus and had to swim superfast.

...

They had fallen laughing upon the sun-bleached sand. And in the morning when the girl awoke to the ocean whispering secrets to the wind, she went to pick up her dress, which had blown away into the tideline. And wondered how it came to have silvery blue fingerprints all over the hem?

mermaid illustration by klaus haapaniemi: courtesy british vogue, valentino couture image courtesy vogue italia.

The little mermaid watched, hidden behind ocean spray, as they put on their frocks. And the beautiful boys and girls ran away, into the beach mist...

Just a short story about one of my favorite Valentino designs, here worn by Natalia Vodianova and shot by Bruce Webber for Vogue Italia(March 2008 - Supplement).
I only truly fell in love with Valentino and his designs after watching the documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor. And now I will finally be able see the incredible designs and couture technique up close: Valentino is coming to Brisbane!!
From August 7 to November 7, the Gallery of Modern Art will be hosting the Valentino, Retrospective- Past/ Present/ Future exhibition. CANNOT wait!

images courtesy vogue italia.