Sew Dreams: The Art, Legacy, and Everlasting Allure of Valentino

We Italians know how to do it with red. Pompeian, Venetian and Titian red, Ferrari red and, yes, Valentino red. That is to say the mix between carmine, purple and cadmium (Pantone number 2035) so calibrated as to transform into an eternally modern ultra neutral, nocturnal and feminine, yet genderless and ageless, “imagined” by the couturier from whom it takes its name, Valentino Garavani, when he was still a young man destined for worldwide fame. And whether it was the dress of a lady sitting at the Barcelona Opera that inspired him, or that there is the hand of Diana Vreeland, one of her powerful American fairy godmothers, who made her fetish of that color, well, it really doesn't matter to establish it. 

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Because what matters is the way in which Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, an ethereal legend that has just disappeared of Italian savoir-faire and world couture, who would have turned 94 on 11 May, managed to transform “his” red into the symbol of an exquisite epic as a small provincial prince (he was born in Torre Menapace, a tiny village of Voghera, a fertile land of brilliant snobbery, see Alberto Arbasino) into the quintessence of the Roman Dolce Vita. In short, in a national memorial monument that makes boomers proud, fascinates millennials, inspires respect among colleagues in the midst of two generations, engulfs high global finance. And it made me dream a lot. Who? The heads crowned with or without thrones, what's left of the jet set, the exotic emerging bourgeoisie, Hollywood, the Arab plutocrats. And the new housewives of Voghera, whatever social category they represent today.

As a good Pope emeritus, Valentino had mildly blessed Alessandro Michele's entry into a Maison that talks about Made in Italy but is in the hands of Mozah bint Nasser, Sheikh of Qatar and, increasingly, in those of Monsieur François-Henri Pinault. Nothing warm, how can I say? , the choice could be right, maybe we're more similar than it seems, see you in Paris... 

Valentino the Italian, then. Even though he preferred to speak and think (and get angry) in French. At most in English. He who owned the Château de Wideville, the mansion of the Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours, lover of the Sun King, but who used Meissen porcelain to serve yellow risotto. He who dined with the Beckhams in London but then, for his long farewell to fashion, on September 4, 2007, after 45 years of dedication, had the Temple of Venus rearranged by Dante Ferretti and illuminated the Colosseum red.

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Starting from the end is a device like any other. But it was here, in his self-retirement, that Valentino had created the masterpiece. And this is where his innocent and unapologetic Italianness had been watered down by Po Valley wisdom: of course, the show and the dancers that circled the air of O mio babbino caro sung by Callas, certainly the famous and at times hilarious docufilm that filmed everything at the end (Valentino: The Last Emperor, directed by Matt Tyrnauer), but let's think about it, it's not for everyone to calculate the exact moment when the door should be closed without slamming it, saying “I left the party when it was still full of people.” 

But this should not surprise us, because Valentino, despite whims and naïveté, has metabolized the social changes experienced by our country. In his own way, obviously: in the years of terrorism he was driving a red Valentino armored Mercedes in Rome! But let's rewind the tape and go back to the beginning.

Passing by Giancarlo Giammetti, the cute and listless student from a good family, now almost 84 years old, who, even if we were in a Fellini script, in 1960 met Valentino at the Café de Paris in Via Veneto. Sitting alone, he waited to enter The Bat nightclub, couldn't take it anymore than the university and dreamed of traveling the world, of living in Paris and New York. His interlocutor met by chance, on the other hand, dreamed of someone who would manage him, leaving him alone, a Maison all his own. A communion of dreams is born. A love is born. A fashion house was founded in Via Condotti from which paparazzi outfits will come out everywhere, Jackie O's wedding dress, high collar and short skirt, the one worn by Liz Taylor while dancing with Kirk Douglas at the premiere of Spartacus, the coat that Farah Diba wears to escape the Ayatollahs.

But above all, an indestructible partnership, an indestructible friendship, an extended family that includes the children of historical collaborators are born (and survive the end of the couple, which lasted 12 years). 'The Boys', as Diana Vreeland called them, did not hide or flaunt their connection, and everyone lived with their mother. Giammetti is happy to be in the shadows, twirling the math and planting the ivory tower in which Valentino, candid and bizarre, locked himself up 8 hours a day. Coming out? Just 20 years ago. Oh, yeah, no one had ever asked them. They were young, handsome, spendthrift, successful. Never an indiscretion, a vice. That's good.

The changes, we were saying. Just Giammetti knows how to summarize them masterfully. First they made the money selling clothes, he said. Then with the licenses. In 1975 they brought ready-to-wear to Paris, and in 1988, Haute Couture. The second lines have arrived. Then the big groups sewed different labels on the same model. Better to save Private Valentino. This is how we run, disappearing every time: from Maurizio Romiti's HDP to the Marzotto Group, from the English Permira to the Qatar iota Mayhoola for Investments, up to Kering. And Pierpaolo Piccioli's farewell, with the first cracks in super luxury (in 2023, revenues down 3 percent at constant rates).

And today? “Today we are enjoying our lives,” Giammetti reiterated in every interview. Adding that if they really had to start over, they would have made a slow fad, inviting them to buy less and better. A project in step with the intentions — mostly disregarded — of sustainable fashion. After all, Valentino was an absolute unicum, a genius of social intuition but even more aesthetic whose verb was only one: beauty. Not all designers are able to have a Wikipedia page dedicated to a single creation, that 1992 Haute Couture dress that Julia Roberts, an intelligent ambassador of the archival choice, wore in 2001 when she received the Oscar for Erin Brockovich.

The Legacy Of An Empire

Eleonora Chiais teaches Fashion and Costume, Forms and Languages of Fashion and Fashion and Creativity at the University of Turin, and History of Costume and Fashion at the University of Bologna. We ask you for an academic evaluation of the genius and the phenomenon that Valentino Garavani was. What kind of legacy (stylistic, historical, cultural, aesthetic) has it left us? What do young fashion professionals get from it?

The character Valentino was first known and then recognized. Since his beginning, also thanks to his training in the Parisian High Fashion school (predominant at the time of his debut), the designer has in fact placed himself in an intermediate position between Haute Couture and the then nascent ready-to-wear. This eclecticism made him the last great Italian couturier but, at the same time, one of the first Italian designers. The main legacy he leaves is precisely this: the ability to combine High Fashion and ready-to-wear, imparting, on one and the other, a personal and highly recognizable style, made up of attention to details, materials and luxurious craftsmanship always inherent in his creations. As demonstrated by his involvement in the world of stage clothes and, in particular, in those of ballet.

What is the influence of the Maison in the collective imagination, after Valentino's farewell to the catwalks in 2007? After Alessandra Facchinetti's parenthesis, the legacy of Garavani/Giammetti was successfully collected by a new duo, Chiuri/Piccioli, who placed themselves in perfect continuity with the founders and collected the heritage of the Maison. Maria Grazia Chiuri's entry into Dior confirmed that the legacy had been accepted, because the designer followed in the footsteps of the master Valentino, learning the secret art of Haute Couture and bringing this expertise to the helm of one of the houses most connected to Haute Couture ever. Moreover, this period was particularly long (considering the years in which Piccioli was left alone), and this, in my opinion, confirms the aesthetic and intellectual continuity that has been the common thread between the two creative couples.

What assessments should be made on current events, on the Garavani/Michele balance, luxury and high finance, marketing and craftsmanship? The entry of Alessandro Michele, creative director of Valentino since March 2024, represents, in my opinion, a strategy that is well in continuity with the historical moment. The decision probably implies the desire to go in a new, more inclusive, more marketing-oriented and “younger” direction. I believe that Michele da Valentino is shifting the focus to the more everyday and identity dimension of the clothing system.

How has Valentino's fashion represented an Italian identity in the world? It has represented Italianness in the world precisely because of its ability to combine high craftsmanship and style, linking training in Parisian Haute Couture to the disruptive success of Made in Italy in the 70s and beyond. This fortunate combination, which we could define as 'high stylism', was the trait that linked the founder to his successors, with what result I cannot say. But as Churchill argued, “change is not always the same as improvement, but to improve we must change.”

Credits:

Author: Elisabetta MURITTI

Photographer: (SERGENTE) GASTEL GIOVANNI