The Valentino Rendez-Vous x Bergdorf Goodman Experience
The love affair between Bergdorf Goodman and Valentino continues.
Just two weeks after it snagged the exclusive for the multibrand retail launch of the luxury label’s Archive collection, the upscale store will welcome Valentino’s Rendez-Vous spring collection with a series of in-store and digital experiences intended to bring creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s adventurous collection to life.
More from WWD
The Valentino Rendez-Vous x Bergdorf Goodman experience, which will run from Thursday until April 10, will feature giveaways and photogenic moments throughout the store, including a flower cart on the first floor that will hand out bouquets; a pastry stand outside the brand’s second floor shoe department; a coffee cart within Bergdorf Goodman’s decorative home shop on the seventh floor, and a vintage pink taxi stationed on 58th Street and Fifth Avenue, emblazoned with Valentino Rendez-Vous branding.
The collection will be housed in the Valentino women’s ready-to-wear shop on the store’s second floor where customers will find a hallway of vignettes showcasing the collection leading to the shop, which was created by Bergdorf’s visual team in conjunction with Valentino. The partnership will also mark the exclusive debut of the violet colorway of the new One Stud handbag in two styles — a top handle and a shoulder bag.
Two of the store’s Fifth Avenue windows will be devoted to Rendez-Vous and will include mannequins as well as visuals of Valentino’s latest campaign featuring Zendaya.
The in-store experiences were championed by Linda Fargo, senior vice president of Bergdorf’s fashion office, and the initiative will also include interactive elements on the store’s e-commerce and social media channels. Actress Emma Roberts will be featured in the store’s editorial offerings as well as on Instagram, where she will be having a conversation with Fargo. That content will debut on Saturday and highlight the actress and Fargo wearing looks from the collection.
“We are so thrilled to be able to bring the spirit and experience of this exuberant Valentino spring collection to life both in-store and online,” Fargo said. “It’s a perfect kick-off to the official start of spring, both in fashion and in life in New York.”
She said the starting point for the idea was Valentino’s spring show in Paris last October when the company “immersed us in a 360-degree perspective on fashion, and how it’s most alive and relevant when it moves off the runway and into the streets. They totally captured how modern messaging and experience needs to be multidimensional, and interactive.”
She said Rendez-Vous was “a beautiful raison d’être” after so much isolation and social deprivation during the pandemic. “The idea of communing, meeting again in cafés, sharing coffee, going to flower markets, buying pastry — essentially all the simple acts of living life freely, and enjoying meeting each other in Rendez-Vous of all sorts, was a magnet to pull a great story around for us.”
Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.