(2009; English, Italian, French) A feature film of the world of fashion, starring Valentino Garavani and his companion/business partner for nearly 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti, with a cast of Hollywood luminaries, including Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep, Sarah Jessica Parker, Uma Thurman, Claudia Schiffer, Matthew Broderick, Michael Caine, and Joan Collins, comes from director/producer Matt Tynauer with music by Nino Rota.

An icon of creative clothing for women, Valentino - a man who knows what women want: "They want to be beautiful" - the only designer in the world to last nearly half a century, prepares for his Retrospective Coulture Collection for 2007 in Rome at the Ara Pacis, celebrating 45 years of designing dresses: a big party for 200,000 guests - including Karl Lagerfeld and Tom Ford - displaying 300 dresses at a cost of 200,000 euros. Repeatedly he's asked if this means he's about to retire.

In the '70s his company made money selling clothes, in the '80s with licensing, in the '90s through investments. His empire - sold to HDP Corp in 1998 and then to the Matteo Marzotto Group in 2002, making Marzotto president and majority shareholder - is again about to be acquired anew by Permia.

In his mid-70s, he tells of watching cinema as a boy of 13 and wanting to create clothing for women - "for women who actually wear them."

In accepting the French Legion of Honour, he expresses gratitude (showing deep emotion) to Giancarlo (who says when asked what it's like to be in the little man's shadow for so long: "Happiness"). The pair met in 1960 at the Café de Paris, shortly after Valentino's first venture had failed; with Giancarlo his luck turned favorable with Jacqueline Kennedy and many other women of international renown choosing his fashions for themselves.

The creation of a spare yet spectacular white gown, completely hand-sewn with sequined vertical ruffles, takes shape upon a model for the Beaux Arts showing in Paris. Ever critical, restless and sleepless before the final production of models wearing his fashions for their runway appearances, Valentino complains to Giancarlo about the desert dunes and sand for the stage setting and the hairstyling and the cameras following him everywhere. His standards are strict; as for ankles being exposed beneath an evening gown when the wearer is walking, that's disgusting.

The huge effort that goes into these haute couture presentations each year is for image and prestige; the profits come later from selling accessories. André Leon Talley, the American editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, exclaims that Valentino's creations have the rare quality of showing both "restraint and exuberance."

I nearly forgot, everywhere Valentino travels (by corporate jet) he takes along his six pugs (each having a name beginning with M and having seats on the aircraft).

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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