Have a Pink Think, won't you? Artist and author Douglas Coupland did just that for Valentino's Fall/Winter 2022 collection, "Pink PP."
And, before you get too excited, the "PP" is for creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli. Come on, get your mind outta the gutter.
But, seriously, Coupland presumably enjoyed the double entendre. His artwork is strikingly graphic and often unabashedly blunt, free from pretense but rich in meaning. Coupland's writing is similarly layered; he's best known for coining the term "Gen X."
This earnest attitude informs the "Pink PP" box set, which was sent to guests, press, and friends of Valentino as an invitation to the FW22 show on March 6.
Packaged inside the strikingly tonal "Pink PP" set, find a pencil, booklet, and Pink Think, a sort of manifesto and sort of brain dump that Coupland wrote about the color pink (presumably, the tone plays a big role in Valentino's seasonal collection).
Coupland's thoughts range from the quippy — "Pink is fun. Pink is a winning lottery ticket." — to the anecdotal: "I was in a toy store a few months ago and I turned a corner and walked into the doll aisle, and it was like entering a heightened state of being. That bombardment of hyper-pink, like I’d just had a glass of pretty good wine."
"In the old days, witches used to cast spells on objects," Coupland continues. "You’d look at a chair and think nothing of it, but if someone told you the chair had a spell cast on it, you’d treat it much differently. Ooh... it’s a lucky chair! It’s had a spell cast on it. Well, pink is the spell."
Sounds like this guy's a big fan of the color pink!
The "Pink PP" booklet that accompanies Pink Think includes 10 exclusive Coupland works, showcasing tonal all-caps slogans in the style of Jenny Holzer and Barbra Kruger like "MY BRAIN FEELS LIKE FRIDGE MAGNET POETRY" and "KNOWING EVERYTHING TURNS OUT TO BE SLIGHTLY BORING."
Valentino is getting real artsy these days, having only just partnered with An Art App to showcase its favorite warm hue and Zendaya strutting around in AR.
