Couture Sweatsuits, Cape Dresses, and Beaded Minis: A Night in L.A. With Valentino

It’s the night before the third annual InStyle Awards. Do you know where your celebrities are? We do. They were gathered at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles to fete Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Valentino and InStyle’s Designer of The Year recipient.

“When designers come to L.A., there’s a little bit of a weight lifted off of their shoulder,” a dewy-faced Kate Hudson told InStyle, dressed in an orange Valentino gown. “So nice to see Pierpaolo in this environment, laid back.”

It may have been Sunday night, on the eve an impending heat wave on the West Coast, but the conversation at the Sunset Tower was all Valentino, no mentions of weather woes or Sunday Scaries. The setting: intimate and fun, a hotel suite with a sprawling balcony jam-packed with Hollywood elite, including Mandy Moore, Marisa Tomei, and Bella Heathcote, all dressed to the nines in Valentino.

“It’s weird to say, but the sweatsuits,” Gabrielle Union told InStyle when we asked her what her favorite thing about Valentino is. “I was at the men’s show in Paris and I wanted all of the sweat suits. I’m thoroughly obsessed. I now have three in all of the colors and I Just want to collect them. Their take on the sweat suit…it’s like the couture sweatsuit.”

Need proof? Look no further than our very own Editor-in-Chief’s outfit for the night: a Pierpaolo-designed emerald green jumpsuit. Swoon.

Hudson, who’s been a Valentino fan for decades, remarked on her long affair with the brand: “I’m loving what’s happening with Valentino now. [The brand is] the most ethereal. When I look at the clothes, they are the ones I actually love to wear all the time. I would say Valentino, right now, for me, is that designer.”

Us, too, Kate. Us. Too.