Valentino Gravani

Fashion icon Valentino made haute couture history with his visionary take on elegant opulence. Now the designer-turned-movie star shines a rare light on his charmed life on and off the runway.

"Valentino." Just the mention of that legendary name conjures up images of supermodels and celebrities dressed to kill.

Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Gwenyth Paltrow, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Princes Margaret…Famed ladies like these have counted on Valentino to dress them for the spotlight for more than four decades. The haute couture maestro has never failed them.

"I have had a beautiful career that’s been like a dream," says Valentino, who spoke with Modmen.com after the premiere of his new documentary, "Valentino: The Last Emperor" at the Toronto International Film Festival.

With unprecedented access Vanity Fair writer-turned director Matt Tyrnauer serves up a rare, insider’s glimpse into Valentino’s career and his 50-year relationship with partner Giancarlo Giammetti. The film also marks that watershed moment when the couture icon bid farewell to the fashion industry. Their decision, as Tyrnauer poignantly captures, has as much to do with the state of today's fashion industry as it does with this duo's state of mind.

"The movie is emblematic of where fashion is today," says Tyrnauer. "Now huge companies and bankers are trying to invent passion with money. That's the difference between them and Valentino."

In business since the 1960s, Valentino’s passion for fashion first surfaced while he was a student in his native home of Voghera, Lombardy. Starting out as an apprentice under his aunt Rosa and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo, the 17-year-old Valentino moved to Paris and immersed himself in studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Apprenticeships at Balenciaga, Jean Desses and Guy Laroche followed, as did his successful international debut in 1962 at Florence’s Pitti Palace Valentino.

Since then Valentino and Giammetti have built a fashion house that is counted among the world’s most famous haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion empires. "Valentino is the most aesthetically driven person I’ve met in my life. That’s no surprise," says Tyrnauer. "Unlike Yves St. Laurent, to which he is constantly compared, Valentino isn’t existential or tortured in his work. He is completely driven by the surface but he’s so completely pure about it. He just loves beauty and that’s what makes his work simple and complex."

As Tyrnauer says, "Valentino started with a boyhood dream and nothing else and built an empire. When he steps down it is a turning point in fashion. I'm glad I was there to capture it."

MODM: "You’ve been in the spotlight for years. Did it feel different being the star of this new movie?"

Valentino: "I am Valentino the designer. I am used to have the camera on me. But I must admit this was a little different."

MODM: "In what way?"

Valentino: "To be honest I don’t think Giancarlo or I really understood what Matt wanted to do in this movie. We thought we were making a documentary that would be seen by fashion students. We never dreamed that we’d be going to film festivals with it. It’s been wonderful."

MODM: "Did you have any second thoughts about the film once shooting began?"

Valentino: "Yes, there was a moment at the beginning where I thought there goes our privacy. But that changed. Seeing the film as I did in Toronto I finally appreciate what Matt wanted to capture. The movie is not gossipy. It’s not intrusive. But it tells the world who I am and what my life is really like. Matt edited some 250 hours worth of film to finish it. But he put it together beautifully. I am very pleased with it."

MODM: "What was your secret to building such an extraordinary career?"

Valentino: "I love my career and I’ve had a very, very happy time at it. I’ve shown everywhere from Los Angeles to China and all the while I worked hard. But I also took everything that came at me with my calm. I never took anything for granted. I always felt very grateful for everything that I was blessed with in my work and in my life."

MODM: "Why did you decide to retire?"

Valentino: "I left the world of haute couture because it was time. I wanted to be free. To do all the other things I never could before because my life was so structured. Fashion is glamorous. But fashion is never free."

MODM: "So many designers live fashion 24/7. But you have successfully managed to balance your career with a rich personal life. How did you do that?"

Valentino: "I think it is a big mistake for designers to work, work, work to the exclusion of all other things. You see this a lot in New York. It’s sad. Life is nothing without family. What does all this really mean if you can sit back and enjoy yourself and what you’ve accomplished with the people you love?"

MODM: "What are you thoughts on the fashion industry today?"

Valentino: "In a certain way I think some people in the fashion industry are very confused."

MODM: "In what way?"

Valentino: "I am worried. There are very, very few people working at that haute couture level today. I would feel so very sad if haute couture would die."

MODM: "Does that seem an inevitability given the fact that bankers, not designers, are running the world’s biggest fashion houses?"

Valentino: "Everything has become so commercial in this industry. That lowers the level of craftsmanship in the clothes. Many of my colleagues have brought extraordinarily beautiful things to the world. Beauty, glamour…It’s a pity to see it come to an end."

MODM: "What has been your biggest thrill at your shows?"

Valentino: "I think back to all the young girls sitting in the first row dreaming of a long gown to have to go to the ball. It was wonderful to see such hope and dreams in their eyes. If couture is eliminated one day what will happen to those dreams?"

MODM: "Now that you have retired and closed one chapter in your life what’s next?"

Valentino: "I am very busying with my foundation. But I am also thinking about designing costumes for the classic ballet. I have had designs in my drawer for such a long time. One ballet I’d love so much to do would be ‘Coppélia.’ Maybe even an opera like ‘La Traviata.’ It would be fun to do costumes for both. They’re very, very Valentino when you think about it."

MODM: "Has time altered your definition of beauty?"

Valentino: "I cannot deny it. I love what is beautiful – in a plate, a dog, a cat, in a child. I am drawn to beauty in everything. But I have come to believe that freedom is a big part of beauty – the freedom to be your own true self. Nothing is more beautiful."

MODM: "What’s the perfect way sump up your outlook on your life and your career?"

Valentino: "Miracles can happen. When I met Giancarlo I was 26. He was 20. How could we have ever dreamed that this wonderful life lay before us? Building a life and a career takes work. Lots of it. But with that and a lot of faith dreams can happen."

Interview by Constance  
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