Pierpaolo Piccioli’s couture debut reimagines Balenciaga in his own colourful image

Italian designer brings sculptural silhouettes and playful palettes to storied house, while it is hats off to Giorgio's niece at her second Armani Prive show

The house of Balenciaga takes haute couture very seriously indeed. Cristobal Balenciaga was so horrified by the rise of mass-produced clothes that in 1968 he abruptly shuttered his brand and retired to his native Spain, announcing that high fashion is mortally wounded".

So Pierpaolo Piccioli, who now helms the house, approached the brief of his first Balenciaga couture collection conscientiously, despite having 25 years of experience at Valentino. At a preview, the haute couture war room where he worked on the show for nine months was plastered with images that ranged from a 1961 Balenciaga dress to Spanish golden age art - Zurbaran's chic saints, Velazquez's doll-like infantas - and a monumental Hepworth pierced megalith.