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Valentino and Roman Couture

At Valentino's haute couture show, Colin McDowell reflects on the house, its founder and the future of Roman couture.
By
  • Colin McDowell

ROME, Italy — Rome says 'Italy' more clearly and beautifully than any of the other marvellous cities in this architecturally blessed land. Living in the city in the 1970s, I soon learned that both Rome and Valentino were not only a source of pride across the country, but they were almost seen as one intertwined entity exemplifying the entire Italian nation.

Always dressed formally, Mr Valentino Garavani was a totally convincing boulevardier, second only to Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italy's most celebrated war hero. No wonder Jackie Kennedy, one of the earliest members of the international pack of Valentino groupies, once cried, in a moment of fashion passion, "Valentino! Live forever!" It's an injunction the designer seems to have taken totally to heart, as he blithely moves, elegantly coiffed and deeply tanned, through old age.

The man and the city of Rome are so intertwined that his headquarters and ateliers are in Piazza Mignonelli, right next to the Spanish Steps. In the 1970s, dusty and often dirty students and backpackers sat and dreamt in the sun, hardly aware of the Rolls Royce purring at the curbside, ready for the maestro to come bursting through the door of his headquarters to be swept away to places so perfectly elegant that the rest of us could hardly dream of them: lands created by his taste, determination and wealth; lands with a style entirely his own. Above all, these lands are about friendship for Valentino. “I have so many friends,” he says with the same authority in his voice that I detected years ago when he told me: “I know everything about fashion.” No hesitation. No doubt.

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Autumn/Winter 2015 | Source: Courtesy" width="329" height="495">

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Valentino haute couture Autumn/Winter 2015 | Source: Courtesy

Built by hard work and with huge style, the fashion house of Valentino was built to last, which is why, when the time came to step away from his company, it never even entered the fashion's collective imagination that Valentino would fade and die, like so many other great fashion houses forced to take on new designers following the departure of the founder. Valentino had seen that sad pattern enough to know that this was not how his empire was to end.

Valentino's touch of genius regarding his succession was to realise that what was needed was people who had worked in the creative kitchen at his side and knew how to follow his recipes whilst giving them their own flavour. After the short-lived tenure of Alessandra Facchinetti, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli were plucked from the boiler room, where they had worked on accessories, and placed on the bridge to steer the ship.

They have since brought it safely into harbour, where it now sits serenely as a testimony not only to Valentino's skills, but also to their own. Dense craftsmanship and exquisite work in the finest materials have in recent years become as much a part of the house’s codes as Valentino’s famous hue of red. Their aesthetic, as epitomised by the house’s haute couture Autumn/Winter 2015 collection shown on Thursday, was undoubtedly informed by that of the founder, but still convincingly expressed through Chiuri and Piccioli’s own perspective.

And that is what this three-day jamboree, running from July 6th to July 9th was all about. First and surely foremost in emotional terms, staging Valentino’s couture presentation in Rome rather than Paris, as the label typically does, was a remarriage between a great city and a great label. Secondly, it was an affirmation of the strength of the label: we were also there to note the opening of the new Valentino flagship store — the biggest of all Valentino shops anywhere — designed jointly by David Chipperfield, Maria Grazia and Pierpaolo.

In tailored tours arranged for the 800 people invited to the celebrations, we were shown the current designers' personal Roman marvels. Some were taken to the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel, others invited to an open-air dinner in the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian. An open air fashion show entitled ‘Mirabilia Romae’ (the Marvels of Rome) followed by a formal dinner for 700 guests, staged under Roman pines in the Villa Aurelia, ended the three days.

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Valentino haute couture Autumn/Winter 2015 | Source: Courtesy

During my time at the celebrations, I found myself recalling the glory days of the 1970s, when couture was a part of life for members of the fashionable and artistic high society of the city. A time when 'dressing for dinner' meant just that to the many principessa, contessas and actresses that made up Roman high society, dressed in alta moda haute couture. Each had her favourite house, which are, alas, mostly now gone. I worked for Pino Lancetti, known as 'The Artist' for his brilliant prints and colour sense. But king of them all was Roberto Capucci who, coming from the aristocratic class, understood the needs of its customers perfectly. They loved him and made him the figurehead of Rome's couture.

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Walking along the Via Veneto on a glorious summer morning during my visit to the city, I wondered why Rome was left to just fade away when Milan and ready-to-wear took over Italian fashion. My belief is that international fashion is not best served by the virtual monopoly of the four main cities that show it. I am convinced we need more diversity of place — and also thought. It seems to me that Paris as one couture city would be strengthened, not threatened, by Rome becoming another centre for couture.

Quite apart from young talents that I am sure would soon spring up to grab the opportunity to be part of a new couture, there are already Italian fashion houses which could show couture in Rome. Valentino, Dolce and Gabbana and Giambattista Valli are surely able to provide the lead to encourage young designers, not necessarily from Italy alone, to build their businesses there. The sixty looks confidently shown by the Valentino of today, in the triumphant style of the imperial city it calls home, provided a glimpse of what could be.

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