88 candles for Mr Valentino Garavani

Symbol of elegance and sobriety, the last Emperor of fashion, Mr. Valentino Garavani today turns eighty-eight.

Born in Voghera in ’32, after intensive design studies in Paris, he decided to open an atelier in Rome in the late fifties, flanked by Guy Laroche, a key figure in the early years of the fashion house.

After a few years Valentino had already conquered the demanding world of the fashion industry with his elegant and seductive clothes, at the beginning of the 60s he took part in the Florentine fashion shows at Palazzo Pitti where he established himself with designers and American buyers competed with those who managed to grab one of his collections first. In this flourishing period, not only his career took off, but also love: Giancarlo Giammetti arrived, the historic right-hand man and alter ego of the designer with whom the brand Valentino Garavani achieved success.

Valentino is pure inspiration, his collections are distinguished by the presence of drapes, pleats and an extravagant taste for animal prints. Moreover, like all successful designers, he takes a lot of inspiration from art history: he brings Klimt, Hoffmann and a good part of Renaissance art to the catwalk.

But it will be the Valentino Red to consecrate the designer; a particular shade born from an evening spent at the opera in Barcelona where the clothes worn by the actors were a combination of shades of red: from carmine to purple.

The divas of the time went crazy for Mister Garavani; so the brand began to be worn by great style icons such as the Cleopatra of the cinema Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Jacqueline Kennedy who became the designer’s inspirational muse; for her she even made the dress for the wedding with Aristotle Onassis.

The success is skyrocketing, so much so that in ’68 an American magazine named the man with a rounded “r” and always impeccable appearance “the King of Italian fashion”.

In 2007, on the occasion of the forty-fifth anniversary of the maison, he left the reins of the couturier profession to devote himself to art, keeping a watchful eye on his brand. He was followed by great names in design; from Maria Grazia Chiuri to Pier Paolo Piccioli, current creative director.

With him opens what has been defined the new era of the historic brand as Piccioli manages to make the house of high fashion more street, offering more rock looks for every day.

Studded sneakers, with a silvery side band, have become a must have for all shopaholics.

Finally, in 2008 a docufilm about the life and professional success of the founder of Italian style was made by Matt Tyrnauer, journalist of Vanity Fair.

For these eighty-eight years, all fashion lovers and not only, wish Mr Valentino to be always so “glamorouso”!