Valentino's Couture Road Trip

VALENTINO is taking its couture show on the road - and the label's designers, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, are in for a busy couple of months as a result.The Paris-based brand will travel to New York in December to present the offering as it opens its Fifth Avenue store, before showing as usual in Paris in January during Couture Week.

Read more:Valentino Autumn/Winter 2014 Couture

Then, come July, the designers will travel to Rome - their home town and alma mater - to host a couture show to coincide with another flagship store opening, in the ancient Italian city.The label plans to return to Paris for the couture shows in January 2016.

Fashion commentators - including The New York Times's Vanessa Friedman - have interpreted the news as yet another signal that the traditional couture show schedule, and all that goes with it, is losing traction, and that brands are focusing on putting themselves where the customers are.

<p class="story-body-text">"The choice is important because the

brand, led by the Valentino chief executive Stefano Sassi, is one

of the mainstays of the ever-shrinking Paris couture schedule,"

Friedman notes."Its exquisite shows are among the most

highly anticipated of the week, along with Chanel, Dior, Jean Paul

Gaultier and Armani Privé.Valentino's willingness to go its own

way, even if just for a season, would have to give fellow

fashionistas pause."

<p class="story-body-text">With Dolce & Gabbana already showing couture in Italy - the

designers' home market and inspiration for many of their

collections - and now Valentino following suit, we may soon see

other brands take the couture show on the road in pursuit of new