Valentino unvanquished: From dressing First Ladies and his celebrity ‘Val’s Gals’ to championing sustainable fashion
When actress Julia Roberts accepted her 2001 Oscar draped in a vintage gown designed to channel the charm of old Hollywood from the designer’s 1992 couture collection, it was a highlight of both her career and Valentino's
Mourned by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as the ‘undisputed master of style’, Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani’s death at 93 on Monday has left a void in the fashion vocabulary of fairy tales. With millions of tributes pouring in from across continents, his creations have become a living edifice for collectors of couture.
Known for dressing some of the most stunning women of the 21st century, Valentino was synonymous with vibrancy and verve with velvet. With a projected Brand estimate upwards of $10 billion and 70 per cent stake by Qatar’s Mayhoola, Valentino’s personal wealth exceeded $1.5 billion.
From shoes to bags to figure-hugging lace creations, his lines included Valentino, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Roma, and R.E.D. Valentino.
Fashion for Valentino, in essence, was an effervescent expression of beauty — both individual and collective. It was a statement personalised in style of adornment and atonement. A defiant surrender to line, colour, form, light and texture, capable of both blending and standing out, when intended.
Valentino created animal desirability, exclusivity and a sense of sensual aspiration through a combination of superior craftsmanship, rich materiality, and carefully crafted extraordinary, exuberant extravagant emotionally charged branded experience.
Born in Voghera, Italy, on May 11, 1932, he studied fashion design and French at the Academia dell Arte in Milan.
Barely 18, his first job was with couturier Jean Desses in 1950!
Valentino launched his first collection and Salon in Rome in 1960 and stood out for his full-length lace enhanced feminine skirts that stood out from the minis that were a rage back then.
Godfather to Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter Apple, the ever-tanned and coiffed Valentino offered the phantom threads to clothe celebrities and First Ladies from Jackie Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Meryl Streep, Audrey Hepburn to Anne Hathaway to Jennifer Aniston — often known affectionately amid the paparazzi as “Val’s Gals”.
When actress Julia Roberts accepted her 2001 Oscar draped in a vintage gown designed to channel the charm of old Hollywood from the designer’s 1992 couture collection, it was a highlight of both her career and Valentino's.
The black velvet gown fused satin and tulle, with a modest V-branded neckline garnished with band of ivory satin that flowed down its middle. The gown, which even has its own Wikipedia page, has consistently been named one of the most iconic Oscar fashion pieces of all time.
Avoiding drugs and alcohol, welcoming his beauty sleep, he remained fashionably forward for 45 years, building one of the biggest and most sought-after global brands, before retiring in 2008.
His last haute couture show in Paris held at the Musée Rodin had models walk down in the runway draped in his signature shade of red – a fitting finale to his illustrious career, with Alber Elbaz of Lanvin fame, and supermodels Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer, bringing thunderous standing ovation of sheer adulation. Punk metal studs on leather high stilettos, black bags to blood red dresses draped feminine forms in electric elegance that mesmerised the gaze goose-bumping the skin firing the catwalk with flames of fashion that only the maestro could master.
His sought-after ‘valentine-red’-coloured gowns were a heady cocktail of carmine and scarlet fabric with a touch of orange peel introduced to the fashion world in a 1959 strapless dress, and has stayed in eternal vogue for the last seven decades.
With bold red firmly embedded in his turf, Valentino was known to flourish his creations with bows, ruffles, lace and embroidery that he described as a poetic flirtation that touched the feminine. Valentino believed that dressing was a moral choice and that couture was a work of eternal art that was crafted to celebrate the feminine form. Beauty deserved respect.
Even as perfumes, sandals, belts, scarves, sunglasses and purses raged in tandem with apparel, men’s accessories were not lost on him. From his V-logo signature belts to wallets, everything Valentino created was a rage season after season, decade after decade.
Sustainability was high on his agenda with many of his stores flaunting LEED Certifications for reduced carbon footprints for both the energy efficiencies in operations to product pedigree. It is a rare feat when a fashion designer crosses the threshold of commercialisation and embraces a symbiotic resonance with the form that adorns their creation. Valentino possessed the magic touch that embroidered minimalism with feathered ethereal elegance that raised pencil brows of unabashed adoration and enigmatic envy.
(Dr George Jacob FRCGS is a museum director, author, couture critique, designer and author of MUSE: Curating Luxury, poised for release at the Crafting Futures Indo-French Fashion-Culture Summit in Paris this week.)
