Valentino x Goop: Only Somewhat Super

gwyneth-palthrow_goop_valentino_main

This week, Goop announced a collaboration with Valentino on a Wonder Woman-themed capsule collection. Comprised of 25 pieces ranging from sneakers to gowns, this collaboration is a great coup for Goop – Valentino is by far the highest-profile label Goop has ever partnered with, and Goop can also boast the distinction of being Valentino’s first-ever partnership with an outside label.

The brand pairing is excellent – the major fashion house will boost the much-derided Goop’s credibility, while working with Goop will reinforce the Chiuri and Piccioli-helmed Valentino as being youthful and not without a sense of humor. The Wonder Woman theme is incredibly random, but cute and apropos of the current feminist conversation, as well as an in-on-the-joke move aimed at Paltrow’s critics.

It seems like the perfect partnership – the resulting product, however, is mixed.

The pieces are genuinely stunning in person (I had the pleasure of visiting the Goop Pop-up store in New York yesterday) and beautifully constructed. But the price points are too high even for Goop’s altitudinous norm, with t-shirts and sneakers coming in at about $1,000 apiece, and a leather jacket for $10,000. The gowns, though, are truly special and worth the 5-digit price tags.  Many of the pieces are also hard to wear or too novelty for everyday use, like the star-spangled denim hotpants, the similarly-decorated denim jumpsuit, and the completely sheer t-shirt. If Goop and Valentino were going to pursue these price points, they ought to have incorporated at least a few simpler pieces that would be worth the investment But then again, Valentino isn’t exactly known for its practicality – every piece is something special.

The collection seems to be doing well, with several pieces having already sold out just two days after the line’s debut. Apparently the price points haven’t been too much of a deterrent for online buyers, though most of the women in the pop-up store cast one frightened look at the Valentino rack and hightailed it to the more budget-friendly cosmetics section. Price points more akin to Valentino’s Red collection would have been much more accessible – and would have sold out immediately. Or at least caused a reaction more similar to the opening for Balmain x H&M, and less like white ladies nervously eyeing a $1,000 crown.

I certainly hope to see more high-profile collaborations with Goop and even a brick-and-mortar store in the future. Gwyneth should leverage her celebrity friendships to this end. Could Tom Ford x Goop be next? The world might explode – or at least mine certainly would.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s