Arrivederci, Valentino
by Gigi Anders
FEBRUARY 13, 2008 TAGS:
Late last year, when Italian haute couturier Valentino Garavani announced he was retiring in January, after 45 years, the fashion world took notice. Maybe the whole world. After all, this is the man who designed iconic clothes for Jackie Kennedy " the black ensembles in which she mourned President Kennedy and the white lace mini dress in which she married Aristotle Onassis. Other princesses " real (Diana of Wales, Caroline of Monaco, Firyal of Jordan) and Hollywood (Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow) " have also turned to Valentino, when they've wanted to make glamorous, romantic, elegant, graceful statements. The A-list goes on and on, as will the house of Valentino (under new creative director Alessandra Facchinetti, formerly of Gucci). Since "the party is still full," Valentino, 75, said this was the moment to bow out.
A life of parties, fullness and bright red dresses " that's Valentino to a V. He's always been a sucker for la dolce vita. He owns six pugs, five homes and a 152-foot yacht, staffed full-time by 11 sailors in white jumpsuits and yellow Wellingtons.
Born in Voghera, Lombardy, in 1932, he was seduced in his youth by images of American screen sirens. "All my life I was fascinated to see a beautiful woman coming down the staircase in a long gown and a fox coat, in lamé and ostrich feathers," he said. "This was my dream since I was a child, and it is for this reason that I am a designer."
At 17, Valentino went to study fashion design in Paris and then apprenticed at Balenciaga, Jean Dessès, and Guy Laroche. With his parents' backing " his father was a well-to-do electrical supplier " Valentino returned to Italy in 1959 to set up his own fashion house on Rome's Via Condotti. His first couture collection, shown in 1962 at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, was a triumph. He continued showing in Florence and Rome until 1974, when he moved his atelier to Place Vendôme in Paris. In 2006, the French returned the favor, bestowing on him the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
"I have lived in a cloud," Valentino said. "Always beautiful and sensational."
To better understand Valentino's impact, Obit called upon one of the keenest minds and sharpest eyes in style today, The Washington Post's Pulitzer prize-winning fashion editor, Robin Givhan.
Gigi Anders: Robin, it's the end of Valentino doing Valentino.
Robin Givhan: That generation of designers is coming to a close. And that's OK. The point of fashion is to look forward. In some ways, Valentino's been celebrating a way of life that doesn't really exist anymore " except for a small handful of very lucky people. That's part of the fantasy he was selling. If you want to move aerodynamically through your life, Valentino's not for you.
GA: What was so Valentino about Valentino?
RG: He comes out of that Old World, old school, alta moda, when there used to be a Roman couture. They're extraordinary tailors. That's very much of a tradition in Italy.
GA: The Rome fashion base died when Valentino moved to Paris?
RG: Yes, it sounded the death knell for the importance of Rome shows.
GA: But what about Milan? Milan is still pretty major.
RG: Milan's industrial nature attracted ready-to-wear there, not couture. Couture showed in Rome. Valentino showed both.
To distinguish couture from the normal ready-to-wear line, it's a bit like champagne. Champagne is champagne, and then there's sparkling wine.
GA: Speaking of things French, how would you say Chanel compares to Valentino?
RG: A lot of what Valentino did suggested that modern style is a bit vulgar. Whereas with Chanel there's always a kind of desperate ache to be cool, and a trend leader and shocking and edgy. Which is also to its detriment.
GA: Why?
RG: Chanel really understands the power and allure of its brands and logo and plays that card in a way that is somewhat crass. "Here, let's slap a couple of interlocking C's on a pair of cargo pants and charge a couple thousand dollars for them." Those double-C's are incredibly valuable, but they often get put on merchandise in which the only thing going for it is that logo. Valentino didn't really have a logo like that.
GA: But wasn't he known for his red dresses?
RG: True. While other designers have a logo, Valentino had his own color. Usually at the end of a show, when you get into the gowns, there's always at least one in that very specific shade of red.
GA: What shade?
RG: It's a sort of orangey red, too orangey for me.
GA: Why did he choose that shade, do you think?
RG: My cynical opinion is that it's a shade that looks good on a lighter shade of skin. It's based on the traditional customer who bought those clothes.
GA: Who is the Valentino woman?
RG: She's a woman who has a leisure-filled life. She's not gaudy. But she's exuberant in her wealth. Valentino fed that fantasy " someone very rich and not embarrassed by it " and he lived it. His customers now are more centered in the Middle East and Russia, women who are very interested in fashion, can afford it, and have the wherewithal to deal with it. [A simple Valentino red silk georgette evening gown currently on www.bergdorfgoodman.com costs $7,650.]
GA: Would Valentino dress, say, a hard-charging Hollywood exec?
RG: There are Hollywood execs who wear these clothes, but most folks are more familiar with his work on the red carpet. Valentino was a go-to guy for that.
GA: Like in the movie The Devil Wears Prada.
RG: Right, in pop culture, where you have movies that want to have a scene in which Paris fashion is depicted, there's Valentino.
GA: It's so ironic. An Italian designer representing French haute couture.
RG: Paris fashion is so international. The best-known houses are not led by French designers " Chanel's Lagerfeld [who's German], [Gibraltar-born] Galliano at Dior " and Valentino, in that snippet of pop culture, was viewed as a symbol of French couture. Valentino's distinctive.
GA: And speaking of Prada, how do you think Prada the person and fellow Italian designer compares to Valentino?
RG: I see them as practically polar opposites. Miuccia Prada creates purposefully ugly, dowdy collections. Valentino's a guy who wouldn't know ugly if it smacked him across the head. Prada is relentlessly forward-looking and intellectual.
GA: The Devil Doesn't Wear Valentino.
RG: No. Valentino had a way of creating these confections that were really beautiful, exquisite, feminine but not sugary, not girlish. They were really womanly confections.
GA: Clothes for grown-ups?RG: Valentino didn't indulge in really provocative clothes à la Versace, or the restraint of Armani. Valentino would send out these very ladylike clothes that, at their best, seemed whipped out of air " light, with a bit of whimsy. Touching on modernity with lightness is what kept it interesting. Sometimes something really pretty is enough. Valentino's design aesthetic was about his allure and sensibility.
GA: Which was?
RG: Italian men know how to offer up a compliment to women's appearance with an admiring tone as you might admire a beautiful painting. For Valentino, a woman was a canvas and he wanted to paint something beautiful on it, unlike so many designers now.
GA: Meaning?
RG: Being tortured " that's not part of Valentino's storyline. There's a lot of tortured postmodern Freudian hoo-ha connected to designers' clothes that's mean-spirited. I'm moved to ask myself, "Do they really like women?" I was never moved to ask that question of Valentino. It was pretty evident that he liked women.
GA: What would his mantra be? "What's timeless?"
RG: I'd say, "What's tasteful, what's grand, what's pretty?"
GA: Does Valentino remind you a little bit of [Dominican Republic-born] Oscar de la Renta?
RG: Valentino's sensibility is a lot more Old World, but yes, I do think that they are kindred spirits because he has in many ways the same ability to appeal to both the mother and the daughter. No matter how old a woman is, she wants to look pretty, attractive, and vital.
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