Elegant & Festive: Valentino
- Posted by: angeli.krohmal
Valentino Garavani is one of the representatives of the sphere of high fashion, whose creations can undoubtedly be called chic. The designer, both at the dawn of his career and towards its end, pursued the goal of emphasizing the original beauty of a person with classic silhouettes, fabrics and cut. In his view, beautiful clothes and beautiful people wearing them are collected, elegant and at the same time a certain freedom of spirit without excesses. Let's take a closer look at the rich history of the fashion house from Italy.
Valentino was born in 1932 in the region of Lombardy. Already since childhood his craving for beauty was expressed in constant drawing, including sketches of clothes, dancing and studying theater. He decided that art would become his life's work, and therefore entered the university in Milan, where he studied specialized subjects. After realizing that he was good at it, he continued his studies in Paris at the Fashion Syndicate. During his studies he won a prestigious award for his work, which led to his first job offer - the designer Jean Desses invited him to join him.
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So from 1950 Valentino began to work actively on the creation of clothes. In 5 years the young designer was practicing at Guy Laroche himself. And already in 1960 he created the first official collection of his own clothes, which became a precursor to the formation of a new fashion brand. The first boutique was opened in Rome, and in this Valentino was helped by his father.
R.E.D. Valentino
About the designer's love for the red color is legendary. He genuinely believed that after basic white and black, red was the color you could always wear and never let you down. His super famous collection of classic evening gowns, sewn entirely in a vibrant shade of red, is still relevant today and strikes the imagination with its grandeur. For almost half a century of Garavani's reign as the brand's chief designer, red was the basis of all lines and collections (although Valentino never infringed on the rest of the palette). He named individual lines of his collections after this color. The most important dresses in a red shade, created by the designer, are now a museum exhibit.
Thus, one of Valentino Garavani's collections was R.E.D., which actually has the deciphering of Red Escentric Dress. The designer put all his favorite elements and preferences into it - the dresses from this collection looked really regal and at the same time restrained and light. Romantic details, airy fabrics and youthful, but not hip silhouette lines were to everyone's taste (and there were many other color options besides red).
However, Valentino has another favorite - beige. It is in this color that the designer himself feels comfortable, the vast majority of his personal closet is created for Garavani in beige. It is said that his preference is connected with his favorite pets - pugs of beige color. But the designer himself dresses in red very rarely.
It is worth mentioning that Valentino himself adhered to the same rules in personal clothing, according to which he created his collections. Having behind him a higher education in fashion, he always paid attention to the classic cut and never sewed silhouettes, ugly human figures. But looking at the past collections of clothes, it is impossible to call them boring or too conservative. The designer was simply sure that incorruptible classics in both men's and women's costumes will always be a winner. Therefore, Garavani's signature outfit has always been business suits and tuxedos in different variations: the designer experimented with fabrics, sometimes with the cut of pants and prints. As a young man, he was not averse to accessories, such as neckerchiefs, so typical of Italian charisma.
Valentino was never afraid to try something new. It was he who marked a new era in the development of men's haute couture by being the first to start creating men's couture collections. In his creations for men, he never used elements and approaches that he would not incorporate into a personal suit. The popularity of his menswear gained fame very quickly, men became somewhat liberated, no longer wearing just a black suit with a white shirt for any occasion. This also influenced the decision to open branded boutiques separately with only men's collections.
As it often happens, the brand also had a crisis period, and fortunately, it caught up with Valentino at the beginning of the promotion - in the 60s. At the same time, the couturier met Giancarlo Giammetti, who became his main business partner. The Italian entrepreneur completely took over the financial and administrative issues of the brand, giving Valentino more time to create great pieces of clothing. After a while the brand reached stability, boutiques began to open in major European cities - today there are about 130 of them in the world.
In the 70's Valentino experimented a lot on collections, but was still true to his already formed taste. At that time he made many instances of midi length skirts and dresses. When it came to women's pants, the designer wanted more freedom, so in the products of those years, you will rarely find a narrow cut - Valentino preferred palazzo and culottes. In the same decade he decided to shift the focus a bit from monochrome clothes and introduced quite bright prints, inspired by ethnic costumes of different nations.
In the 80's fashion changed dramatically, but not for Valentino Garavani. He considered the trends of the time tasteless and continued to develop his own style, but his pieces never looked old-fashioned. In this decade, his main accents were mini skirts, the same pronounced padded shoulders and a line of things made of denim.
Toward the end of the 90s the brand ceased to be independent and was sold. But Valentino remained its main inspiration and designer and worked until 2008. At the end of 2007 was organized a large-scale last show, which closed the legendary red evening gowns from the maestro. It was a truly stunning show.
At first, instead of the genius couturier worked a whole team of carefully selected designers, each of whom was engaged in a separate direction. A little later Pierpaolo Piccioli became the main designer, who creates the brand's collections to this day. Maria Grazia Chiuri, who assisted Garavani herself, also helped today. It is worth to say that the new Pierpaolo designer almost from the very beginning fully felt the aesthetics of the brand and understood all the founder's ideas. Any modern thing from the fashion house is not weaker than masterpieces from Garavani. And the new benchmark in the form of square rivet studs is another trademark along with the signature 'Red valentino' shade.
Perfumes
The brand has quite a few beautiful perfumes. The iconic women's fragrance is Rock'n'Rose Valentino, in which almost for the first time they made a rather noticeable accent on the note of black currant. The pyramid also contains jasmine and everyone's favorite rose. An interesting collection is the now discontinued Valentina. Round pucks with a beautiful voluminous floral applique were memorable for their unconventional reading of powdery and sweet notes and various incense. The men's collection Uomo in spectacular bottles with glass square spikes deserves special attention. Today the face of the fashion house perfumery is Lady Gaga - it is worth paying attention to one of the latest novelties Voce Viva.
Many world stars of the past and present century fell in love with the works of the talented couturier - Elizabeth Taylor herself, Jacqueline Kennedy, for whom Garavani created an extravagant wedding dress, Princess Diana, Julia Roberts. Jennifer Lopez also turned to him for an outfit for the altar. To date, his fans are Rihanna, Emma Watson, Anne Hathaway, Lady Gaga, Emilia Clarke, Amanda Seyfried and many others. All of them were conquered by Garavani's vision of classic beauty, his inspiration by old Hollywood and his desire to discover as many facets of the already laid grace and charm in a person as possible.
Founded in 1960, Italian brand Valentino is recognizable for its fascinating silhouette lines and famous square rivet studs. We've put together a small capsule version for your closet - from outfits for parties and big evening events to work moods - worthy of your attention.
