Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesValentino couture.

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesBackstage at Valentino couture.

In the program notes for Valentino’s spring couture show, the dresses had names like “Polignac” and “Nicolas Ledoux,” with a mention of the number of hours required to make or embroider the garment. A smocked dress in a delicate shamrock print with organza spirals took 1,000 hours. Don’t say it looks like the bedroom curtains.

The many floral dresses shown by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli did have an open-air feel to them, a nod to dreamy young ladies in French courts. But while the prints, and a passage of spare ivory crepe dresses and suits, looked feminine, the collection’s virginal innocence seemed precious and eventually it just got on your nerves. And I had the feeling I was looking at children, decorative, doll-like children, and not real women.

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