Farewell to the Valentino Myth
FASHION ANNOUNCEMENT
Valentino has bowed out as the head of one of the world's most famous fashion empires after 45 years.
In September Valentino Garavani (worldwide known simply as Valentino) announced his retirement as head of the fashion empire to which he gave his name. The announcement came just two months after the 73-year-old had celebrated 45 years of activity by filling Rome with a star-studded array of celebrities and royalty from around the world for a lavish three-day event from 6-8 July costing an estimated e10 million. Like a victorious Caesar returning in triumph, Valentino’s celebration encompassed some of the city’s most famous sites, including Villa Borghese, the Colosseum and the Temple of Venus and Roma in the Roman Forum.
Valentino, along with his contemporary Giorgio Armani, remains one of a handful of designers of his era to have retained control of his fashion group through the passing of the years. While the Valentino brand was bought by the Italian conglomerate HdP in 1998 and then sold to Marzotto Apparel in 2002, Valentino himself remained steadfastly at the helm. This can, at least in part, be attributed to his character and the intimate connection between his life and his designs. As his business and life partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, commented to Vanity Fair several years ago, “You cannot talk about the dresses of Valentino without thinking about him, and when you think about him, you think about the glamorous life he leads, and all that adds to the product.”
Notorious for his lavish expenditure and extravagant tastes, no one would dispute that Valentino lived the life of a fashion icon from the very beginning. As a student in Paris he decorated his digs with Directoire furniture, and when he teamed up with Giammetti after they met in the Cafè de Paris on Via Veneto, his first boutique on Via Condotti was on the brink of bankruptcy due to his complete disregard for the price of materials. While Valentino designed, Giammetti turned the label into a vast empire, though Valentino never lost the strident perfectionism that made him famous, demanding ironed sheets on his bed every night and having gardeners cover his spectacular grounds with forget-me-nots so as to spare him the sight of aesthetically displeasing soil.
The quest for beauty was always the driving force behind Valentino’s work. While some have argued that he has never pushed the boundaries in the same way as his contemporaries such as Yves Saint Laurent or Jean Paul Gaultier, his work has always retained the same timeless beauty as the screen goddesses and icons for whom he designed. “Many women want to be extraordinary and feminine,” Valentino recently commented. “That will never change. What I want is for a woman to walk into a room and everyone turn to look at her, I want a woman to be noticed and always arouse admiration.”
Over the years Valentino has dressed some of the world’s most beautiful women, from Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy to Gwyneth Paltrow and Liz Hurley, in each case creating dresses that both reflect the character of the woman wearing them and propel her into a separate dimension of timeless femininity. His ability to divorce himself from the impediments of the everyday is at once his greatest strength and greatest weakness, allowing him to transcend many of the more tedious oscillations of the industry, yet at the same time distancing him from the grittiness and insight that has informed the work of many of his contemporaries.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the retrospective of his work at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis. Outraging some of the more old-fashioned journalists of the industry, “Valentino a Roma: 45 Years of Style” is arranged around one of Rome’s most historic monuments. Throngs of mannequins clad in elegant dresses surround the peace altar, giving the viewer a sense of the enduring nature of Valentino’s designs. The perspex casing that lines the walls of Richard Meier’s glass structure is filled with chronologically arranged models showing the evolution of his work, mirrored below by the progression of his designs, from painstakingly detailed sketches to pencil-drawn flourishes. But the lack of biographical details and commentary consciously divorces the dresses from the eras in which they were made. Always aspiring to reach new zeniths of beauty, Valentino’s fashion has bypassed many of the historical changes that have shaped the modern woman: the lack of trousers or mini-skirts in the collection bears testimony to his disregard for the feminist revolution of the 1960s, while his obstinate use of fur no doubt has raised a few eyebrows.
Taking over as head of the Valentino label in January will be Alessandra Facchinetti, daughter of Roby Facchinetti, Italy’s equivalent of Tom Jones. “We believe that we have chosen a design team able to give strong creative content and that Alessandra Facchinetti is the designer who can interpret and continue the legacy of Valentino’s core values at their best,” said Stefano Sassi, Valentino Fashion Group’s chief executive officer. Facchinetti famously took over from Tom Ford as director of womenswear at Gucci, but left under a cloud in 2005 after only her second show, citing differences with the management.
Armani, friend and leading light of the same generation, commented that Valentino’s successor would have “the responsibility to continue this great tradition while expressing their own individuality,” and Facchinetti has pledged “to dedicate [herself] to this new project with great passion and enthusiasm, treasuring everything that has been done thus far,” with her first collection ready in March 2008. However, although long-time Valentino devotees Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli are assuming control of the accessories line, the house has already announced a shift of emphasis to men’s wear.
This begs the question: what will happen when a brand founded on the basis of idealising many of history’s most enduring women is placed in the hands of a very real and very modern one?
Valentino has bowed out as the head of one of the world's most famous fashion empires after 45 years.
In September Valentino Garavani (worldwide known simply as Valentino) announced his retirement as head of the fashion empire to which he gave his name. The announcement came just two months after the 73-year-old had celebrated 45 years of activity by filling Rome with a star-studded array of celebrities and royalty from around the world for a lavish three-day event from 6-8 July costing an estimated e10 million. Like a victorious Caesar returning in triumph, Valentino’s celebration encompassed some of the city’s most famous sites, including Villa Borghese, the Colosseum and the Temple of Venus and Roma in the Roman Forum.
Valentino, along with his contemporary Giorgio Armani, remains one of a handful of designers of his era to have retained control of his fashion group through the passing of the years. While the Valentino brand was bought by the Italian conglomerate HdP in 1998 and then sold to Marzotto Apparel in 2002, Valentino himself remained steadfastly at the helm. This can, at least in part, be attributed to his character and the intimate connection between his life and his designs. As his business and life partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, commented to Vanity Fair several years ago, “You cannot talk about the dresses of Valentino without thinking about him, and when you think about him, you think about the glamorous life he leads, and all that adds to the product.”
Notorious for his lavish expenditure and extravagant tastes, no one would dispute that Valentino lived the life of a fashion icon from the very beginning. As a student in Paris he decorated his digs with Directoire furniture, and when he teamed up with Giammetti after they met in the Cafè de Paris on Via Veneto, his first boutique on Via Condotti was on the brink of bankruptcy due to his complete disregard for the price of materials. While Valentino designed, Giammetti turned the label into a vast empire, though Valentino never lost the strident perfectionism that made him famous, demanding ironed sheets on his bed every night and having gardeners cover his spectacular grounds with forget-me-nots so as to spare him the sight of aesthetically displeasing soil.
The quest for beauty was always the driving force behind Valentino’s work. While some have argued that he has never pushed the boundaries in the same way as his contemporaries such as Yves Saint Laurent or Jean Paul Gaultier, his work has always retained the same timeless beauty as the screen goddesses and icons for whom he designed. “Many women want to be extraordinary and feminine,” Valentino recently commented. “That will never change. What I want is for a woman to walk into a room and everyone turn to look at her, I want a woman to be noticed and always arouse admiration.”
Over the years Valentino has dressed some of the world’s most beautiful women, from Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy to Gwyneth Paltrow and Liz Hurley, in each case creating dresses that both reflect the character of the woman wearing them and propel her into a separate dimension of timeless femininity. His ability to divorce himself from the impediments of the everyday is at once his greatest strength and greatest weakness, allowing him to transcend many of the more tedious oscillations of the industry, yet at the same time distancing him from the grittiness and insight that has informed the work of many of his contemporaries.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the retrospective of his work at the Museo dell’Ara Pacis. Outraging some of the more old-fashioned journalists of the industry, “Valentino a Roma: 45 Years of Style” is arranged around one of Rome’s most historic monuments. Throngs of mannequins clad in elegant dresses surround the peace altar, giving the viewer a sense of the enduring nature of Valentino’s designs. The perspex casing that lines the walls of Richard Meier’s glass structure is filled with chronologically arranged models showing the evolution of his work, mirrored below by the progression of his designs, from painstakingly detailed sketches to pencil-drawn flourishes. But the lack of biographical details and commentary consciously divorces the dresses from the eras in which they were made. Always aspiring to reach new zeniths of beauty, Valentino’s fashion has bypassed many of the historical changes that have shaped the modern woman: the lack of trousers or mini-skirts in the collection bears testimony to his disregard for the feminist revolution of the 1960s, while his obstinate use of fur no doubt has raised a few eyebrows.
Taking over as head of the Valentino label in January will be Alessandra Facchinetti, daughter of Roby Facchinetti, Italy’s equivalent of Tom Jones. “We believe that we have chosen a design team able to give strong creative content and that Alessandra Facchinetti is the designer who can interpret and continue the legacy of Valentino’s core values at their best,” said Stefano Sassi, Valentino Fashion Group’s chief executive officer. Facchinetti famously took over from Tom Ford as director of womenswear at Gucci, but left under a cloud in 2005 after only her second show, citing differences with the management.
Armani, friend and leading light of the same generation, commented that Valentino’s successor would have “the responsibility to continue this great tradition while expressing their own individuality,” and Facchinetti has pledged “to dedicate [herself] to this new project with great passion and enthusiasm, treasuring everything that has been done thus far,” with her first collection ready in March 2008. However, although long-time Valentino devotees Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli are assuming control of the accessories line, the house has already announced a shift of emphasis to men’s wear.
This begs the question: what will happen when a brand founded on the basis of idealising many of history’s most enduring women is placed in the hands of a very real and very modern one?
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