Valentino
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| Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani | |
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| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Name | Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Birth date | May 11, 1933 (age 73) |
| Birth place |  Voghera, Lombardy |
| Education | Ecole des Beaux Arts Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne |
| Working Life | |
| Label Name | Valentino |
Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, a.k.a Valentino (11 May 1933, Voghera, Lombardy, Italy) is a fashion designer. His fashion house is among the world's most famous haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion empires.
[edit] Biography
[edit] The Paris years
Garavani became interested in fashion while in middle school in his native Voghera, Italy, when he studied under his uncle Rosa and a local designer Ernestina Salvadeo, an aunt of noted artist Aldo Giorgini). At 17 Valentino moved to Paris to pursue this interest with the help of by his mother Teresa Garavani and his father.
He studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.
His first Paris choice had been Jacques Fath, then Balenciaga, where Valentino's Latin Lover. He then found apprentice jobs with Jean Desses where he used to help Jacqueline de Ribes sketch her dress ideas. He then joined Guy Laroche for 2 years. At Desses, Valentino sketched furiously, between helping with window dressing and greeting clients for the daily 2:30 p.m. private showings. Most of his early sketches were lost. A smattering went on display at a Rome exhibition in 1991, where current clients at that time such as Marie Hélène de Rothschild and Elizabeth Taylor marveled that the DNA of Valentino's style was already apparent in the layers of white pleats and animal prints. After five years, Valentino left Jean Desses under a cloud over an incident about prolonging a vacation in St. Tropez that still makes him wriggle uncomfortably in his impeccably tailored suit. Rescued by his friend Guy Laroche, he joined his "tiny, tiny" fashion house. Just when he had been offered the French equivalent of a green card and after discussions with his parents, he decided to return to Italy and set up in Rome in 1959.
[edit] Rome: la dolce vita and his encounter with Giancarlo Giammetti
In 1959 Valentino moved back to Italy in Rome opened a fashion house on the posh Via Condotti with the backing of his father and an associate of his. More than an atelier, the premises resembled more a real "maison de couture", being it very much on the line of what Valentino had seen in Paris: everything was very grand and models flew in from Paris for his first show.
On 31 July 1960 Valentino meets at the Café de Paris in Via Veneto in Rome Giancarlo Giammetti. One of three children, Giammetti was in his second year of architecture school, living at home with his parents in the haut bourgeois Parioli section of Northern Rome. His father owned an electronics store near the Via Veneto. That day Giammetti gave Valentino a lift home in his little Fiat and a friendship and long-lasting partnership started. The day after Giammetti was to leave for Capri for vacation and by coincidence, Valentino was also going to there so they met again in Capri 10 days later. Giammetti would shortly after abandon the university to become Valentino's business partner.
Giammetti's entrepreneurial genius will prove fundamental to the worldwide expansion and success of the House. Thanks to Giammetti velentino was able to focus on the creative aspect of design leaving the business intricacies to Giammeti. When Giammetti arrived, the business situation of Valentino's atelier was not brilliant: in one year he had spent so much money that his father's associate pulled out of the business so that Valentino had to fight against bankruptcy. Valentino already had a passion for luxury and would spend too much money on expensive fabrics and never thought about the financial aspects of his fashion business. Valentino and Giametti were then told to start a new company ans so they did. Under Giammetti's wing Valentino business got under control and thing were ready for international success.
[edit] Breakthrough in Florence
Valentino's international debut took place in 1962 in Florence, the Italian fashion capital of the time. His first show at the Pitti Palace was welcomed as a true revelation and the young couturier was submerged by orders from foreign buyers and enthusiastic comments on the press.
After the breakthrough show in Florence, Valentino started to dress the ladies of the international best-dressed crowd like his acquaintance from the Paris years Countess Jacqueline de Ribes and New York socialites Babe Paley and Jayne Wrightsman. In 1966, confident of his client base, he moved his shows back to Rome and there, two years later, he had one of his greatest triumphs, an all-white collection, which became famous for the "V" logo he designed.
In 1964 Jacqueline Kennedy bought six of his couture dresses, all in black and white, to wear during her year of mourning after J.F.K.’s death. Jackie had seen countess Gloria Schiff, twin sister of the Rome-based fashion editor of American Vogue in the early 60s and Valentino's friend Consuelo Crespi, wearing an ensemble in two pieces in black organza at a party. Jackie called Gloria to know the name of the designer. In September 1964, Valentino had a show at the Waldorf-Astoria for a benefit. Since Jackie wanted to see the clothes he sent his saleslady, along with a model, to Jackie's apartment on the Fifth Avenue. Mrs. Kennedy ordered six outfits and from then on she became a devout client and a friend. Valentino later on would also design the white dress that Jackie wore to her wedding with Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
Throughout the 1970s Valentino spent considerable time in New York City where his presence was embraced by social personalities such as Vogue's editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland and art identities such as Andy Warhol.
Valentino's mother, Teresa, moved from Voghera to Rome to help with the business. Eventually both his parents moved to Rome and lived with Valentino. Valentino and Giammetti were together for 12 years. Neither ever discussed their relationship with anyone outside their closest circle of friends-not even with their mothers. Teresa Garavani and Lina Giammetti lived with their sons until the women died, Teresa in 1977 and Lina in 1996.
John Fairchild, editor-at-large at Women's Wear Daily and W, told Vanity Fair (August 2004): Valentino and Giancarlo are the kings of high living. Every other designer looks and says, ‘How do they live the way they do?’ I don’t think they made the money that Valentino and Giancarlo did, because Giancarlo knows how to make money. If they did, they didn’t spend the money like Valentino. No other designer ever did. When the terrorism first started in Rome - the period when the Red Brigades were kidnapping people - Valentino was riding around in a bulletproof Mercedes. And do you know what color the Mercedes was? Red. My God, I thought, you must want to get blown up.
[edit] The Accademia Valentino
1989 marked the opening of the Accademia Valentino, designed by Architect Tommaso Ziffer, a cultural space located near his atelier in Rome, for the presentation of art exhbitions. The next year, encouraged by their friend Elizabeth Taylor, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti created L.I.F.E., an association for the support of AIDS-related patients, which benefits from the activities of the Accademia Valentino.
[edit] From HDP group to Marzotto group
In 1998 Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti sold the company for approximately $300 million to HdP, an Italian conglomerate controlled, in part, by the late Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat. In 2002, Valentino S.p.A., with revenues of more than $180 million, was sold by HdP to Marzotto Apparel, a Milan-based textile giant, for $210 million. It was rumored that HDP was displeased with Valentino’s and Giammetti’s personal expenses, a claim Giammetti has bristled at: businessmen have a perspective of fashion which is completely old-fashioned, they believe fashion is a little show with models-beautiful girls they would like to know-who walk on the runway. They don’t know how much work is behind it, and how important the image of the founder and the designer is for the company. 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(Vanity Fair, August 2004).
Today Valentino's clothes can be seen on the most sophisticated and elegant women in the world, from Nicole Kidman to Gwyneth Paltrow to Halle Berry, without forgetting many royal princesses such as Máxima of the Netherlands, Mette-Marit of Norway and Marie-Chantal of Greece.
[edit] TV celebrations: Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart
Tv show host Oprah Winfrey has also covered Valentino in one of her shows in 2005. She also wrote a page in her magazine, O, expressing how she had admired his clothing long before she could afford it. Martha Stewart also went to Paris to celebrate Valentino and was hosted in the designer's castle. Martha Stewart also invited Valentino to of her TV shows.
[edit] Legion d'Honneur
On Thursday, 6 july 2006 President Chirac of France awarded Valentino with final jewel in the crown of his achievements: Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur from the country where he arrived as a 17-year-old Italian boy - and fell in love with haute couture. "I am very honored," said Valentino, who has gleaned awards from across the world from his native Italy to America. "French people are charming, adorable but not extremely generous with foreigners, but they believe in what they do. I feel proud in exchange because what I did in restoration is something I did for La France." (Herald Tribune) Valentino was referring to restoring Wideville, his Louis XIII chateau outside Paris read below).
[edit] Patrons of the art
Both Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti are renowned for their extensive collection of art spread among their homes around the worls including Piccasso, Cy Twombly as well as modern art as Damien Hirst. Valentino has a Bronzino’s portrait of Eleanora di Toledo in his Roman studio and Giammetti has Picasso’s Femme au Chapeau Assise in the office of his Paris apartment on the Quai d’Orsay.
[edit] Valentino's big family
[edit] Giancarlo, Carlos, Charlene, Anthony, Sean and Bruce
Observers have often noticed how Valentino always seems to move surrounded by a court of friends which has become a real family for him. This court always comprises his business associate and ex boyfriend Giancarlo Giammetti, his current boyfriend American bag and jewel designer Bruce Hoeksema, Brazilian brothers Sean and Anthony de Souza, the sons of his PR Carlos de Souza and socialite Charlene Shorto de Ganay, Souza's ex-wife, who is also Valentino's Paris-based pr woman. Souza met Valentino and Giammetti in 1973. Valentino and Giammetti are also the godfathers of Anthony and Sean. Giammetti confided to Vanity Fair that "this family has stayed together because of me, because when Valentino gets mad he cuts - that is that. I remember when Carlos left and moved to Brazil and married Charlene. Valentino refused to speak to him, but I always talked to Carlos. Then one day Carlos called and said he had a baby boy, Sean. I handed the phone to Valentino, and he started to cry and cry".
[edit] Daniela, Naty, Georgina & Rosario
This group may also include other friends like Valentino's PR Daniela Giardina, Spanish socialite and former model Naty Abascal, countess Georgina Brandolini d'Adda de Faucigny-Lucinge, who's part of the Agnelli family and has been Valentino's PR for 18 years before she left for Balmain and Valentino's aristo-muse Rosario Saxe-Coburgh-Gotha of Bulgaria, whom Valentino met in Mallorca via Carlos de Souza at a club.
The Valentino entourage often travels together to Paris for the collections, to Valentino and Giammetti's various homes, to the yacht, where Giammetti, for a period in the 90s, made everyone except Valentino do needlepoint.
Architect Tommaso Ziffer, a close friend of Giancarlo Giammetti and actress Gwyneth Paltrow are also part of the group. Since Marzotto group's acquisition of Valentino from HDP gropu, Matteo Marzotto and her socialite mother countess Marta Marzotto often join the party.
[edit] Oliver & co: Margot, Maude, Monty, Molly, Milton and Maggie
Valentino adores dogs to the point that he named his second line of clothing after his late pug Oliver. Today Valentino owns six pugs: Margot, Maude, Monty, Molly, Milton and Maggie. When travelling on his private 14-seat Challenger jet, three buses are needed to move Valentino and his entourage: one to move Valentino, Giammetti and their staff, another for luggage and a third to transport five of six Valentino's pugs as Maude always travels with him.
Giammetti told Vanity Fair (August 2004): Valentino is embarrassed to be seen traveling with so many dogs. People look at him enough as it is. He often asks his valets to bring the pugs out of the car after he has boarded the plane, sometimes in two shifts so that there seem to be fewer animals. After take-off Maude is released by a butler. She runs forward and jumps up on Valentino's lap, but before she can settle in, another staff member appears with a light-blue linen cloth, which he unfurls and placet under the dog to minimize the effects of shedding. At lunchtime Maude is returned to her fellow pugs.
[edit] Valentino residences
Valentino owns marvelous villas and apartments around the world, all boasting an extensive array of art pieces. These are:
- Palazzo Mignanelli near the Spanish steps, Rome
- A villa on the Via Appia Antica, an historical landmark of Rome
- Chalet Gifferhorn, Gstaad, Switzerland
- Chateau de Wideville, a castle on 120 acres in Davron, about 30 minutes outside Paris which he bought in 1998 and had meticulously restored by the late Henri Samuel, the dean of French interior design. The castle had been previously decorated by the late Renzo Mongiardino, the greatest of the Italian decorators, who also worked on Valentino’s Roman villa and Giammetti’s Tuscan house. Built circa 1600, the castle was once the home of Claude de Bullion, the finance minister for Louis XIII, who slept at Wideville, according to a plaque in the castle, on January 22, 1634. During the reign of Louis XIV, Madame de la Valliere, one of his mistresses, lived at Wideville. Her bedroom, a mirrored-walled chapel with a 30-foot-high ceiling, was converted into a bathroom.
- An apartment near the Frick Museum overlooking Central Park, New York
- One of the largest private houses in London’s Holland Park, a 19th-century mansion whose centerpiece is the grand salon, which features five late Picassos. The breakfast room is lined with 200 Meissen plates, and the small salon has two Basquiats and one painting by Damien Hirst.
His villa on the cliffs of Capri has recently been sold.
Valentino also spends much time in Giancarlo Giammetti's residences in Via Condotti in Rome, on the Quai D'Orsay in Paris and villa in Tuscany and on T. M. Blue One, his hundred-and-fifty-two-foot long yacht boasting a full-time staff of eleven, and a selection of art ranging from Picassos to Andy Warhol.
[edit] Love
As affirmed in an interview with American Vanity Fair he has a love relationship since 1982 with American jewel and bag designer Bruce Hoeksema, a former model and vice president of the house of Valentino until 1998.
[edit] Movie:The Devil Wears Prada
In 2006 Valentino did a cameo role as himself in the hit movie The Devil Wears Prada. One of the DVD's featurettes is called "Getting Valentino" and shows an interview of the designer and Valentino backstage with the movie's actresses, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway , and his associate Giancarlo Giammetti and his PR Carlos de Souza and Charlene Shorto de Ganay.
[edit] Valentino Museum
Giancarlo Giammetti has affirmed (Vanity Fair, August 2004) that he has plans to start work in the next few years on a Valentino museum in London. Other plans involve a museum exhibit to celebrate Valentino's 45 year either at the Colosseum in Rome or in another location in Paris.
[edit] 45 years of Valentino: 6 - 8 july 2007, Rome
In order to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Valentino's fashion house a major event will take place in Rome between 6 and 8 july 2007. «It will be the greatest such event ever in the fashion world, it will be directed by Dante Ferretti and will see the performance of a big star», announced Giancarlo Giammetti in the backstage of Valentino women fall/winter 2008 RTW fashion show which took place in Paris on 28 february 2007. Giammetti did not confirm the rumors about a major fashion show at the Colosseum.
[edit] Timeline
- 1959 Having completed his fashion studies and an apprenticeship with Jean Desses and Guy Laroche, Valentino starts up his first studio in Rome
- 1960 Begins his collaboration with Giancarlo Giammetti, who manages the commercial development of the House of Valentino
- 1962 His first collection at the international fashion Gotha in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, is a triumphant success
- 1965 Valentino is recognized as the top name in Italian Haute Couture
- 1967 He is awarded the Neiman Marcus Prize in Dallas (the equivalent of an Oscar in the world of Fashion)
- 1968 Valentino's reputation is secured with the enormous success of his "Collezione Bianca", the first clothes and accessories to have the magic "V" label Designs the wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Kennedy for her marriage to Aristotle Onassis.
- 1969 Begins his Boutique line of clothes and opens the first Valentino shop in Milan
- 1970 Launch of his first Ready-to-Wear collections Opening of Valentino boutiques in Rome and New York
- 1971 Opening of the first menswear shop in Via Condotti
- 1975 First fashion show of his Ready-to-Wear collection in Paris
- 1976 Opens a boutique in Tokyo
- 1978 Launch of the Valentino perfume at a gala evening in Paris, at the The‰tre des Champs Elysees
- 1982 Publication of the book "Valentino", edited by Franco Maria Ricci 20 September, Valentino presents his Autumn/Winter collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York
- 1984 Valentino celebrates his twenty-fifth year in the business and receives an official award from the Minister for Industry
- 1985 He is awarded the Grand'Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito by the President of Italy
- 1986 Receives the highest decoration possible in Italy, the Cavaliere di Gran Croce, from the President
- 1989 First show of the Haute Couture collection in Paris
- 1990 In February, Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti found L.I.F.E (initials in Italian for "Fighting, Informing, Building, Teaching"), an association working for the fight against Aids. The Accademia Valentino is also officially opened to the public with an exhibition of painters of the Roman School Exhibition of "The Art of Cartier" at the Accademia Valentino Publication of the book "Valentino: Trent'Anni de Magia", by Leonardo arte.
- 1991 To celebrate his 30th year in the fashion business, an exhibition entitled "Valentino: Thirsty Years of Magic" is organized in Valentino's honour by the Mayor of Rome at the Capitole Museum, while the Accademia Valentino presents a retrospective of his designs. Creation of the perfume Vendetta for men and women.
- 1992 Exhibition at the Accademia Valentino entitled: "La seduzione da Boucher a Warhol" The "Valentino: Thirty Years of Magic"' exhibition is invited to go to New York to coincide with the fifth centenary celebrations of the discovery of America. Valentino is invited by the Chinese government to stage a show in Beijing* 1994 In January, Valentino presents his first ever costume designs at the Eisenhower Theatre in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Center, Washington, for an opera entitled "The Dream of Valentino", based on the life of the movie star Rudolf Valentino
- 1995 Valentino's return to Italy is celebrated on 14 January in Florence with a fashion show at the Stazione Leopolda, over thirty years his first show at the Palazzo Pitti. The Mayor of Florence awards him the "Premio speciale dell'arte nella moda"
- 1996 Valentino is named Cavaliere del Lavoro
- 2004 launch of V perfume which will be followed by V for men
- 2006 President Chirac awards Valentino of the Legion d'Honneur
