With today's uncertain economy, many companies have had to make drastic cuts in order to survive, including those in the fashion industry. Once a leading societal force, the industry, which has suffered as customers have become more financially conservative and designers have had to make cuts.
Until very recently, fashion was one of the world's most thriving trades. A new film, "Valentino: The Last Emperor" (2008), now showing in the AMC Loews Harvard Theatre, follows one of fashion's greatest icons during these final years of fashion glory, which also ended up being the last of his celebrated career.
Valentino Garavani, the Italian designer whose label is known simply as Valentino, is one of the most influential names in fashion. For almost 50 years, his collections were among the most revered, and his designs were well-known for their elegance and his signature use of the color red.
As he became more famous over his decades in the industry, dressing celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, his personal influence and wealth climbed, and this film, directed and produced by Matt Tyrnauer, a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair, follows the charming and demanding designer with his impossibly luxurious lifestyle.
The film begins with Valentinoi preparing to show one of his collections. He completes a sketch of a dress, which he then discusses with his associates and hands over to a team of seamstresses who work to transform it into reality. During these collaboration processes, the confidant whom he seems to trust the most is Giancarlo Giammetti.
Valentino met Giammetti in Rome early in his career. The two created a business partnership in which Valentino ran the creative end of his design label, and Giammetti worked the business end. The two also partnered romantically, and although this film's title includes only the designer's name, it is as much about their personal partnership as it is about Valentino's work.
Throughout the film, numerous figures are interviewed about Valentino and his influence on fashion, but Giammetti appears most frequently. As a result of his business and personal relationship with Valentino, he is able to give great insight into the life of this famed couturier.
Immediately after one of Valentino's well received couture shows, rumors of his retirement begin to fly. He denies them and suggests that he has no plans to retire, but these questions are not irrelevant. The wealthy Marzotto family purchased a controlling share of The Valentino Fashion Group in 2002, and by the end of the film, a private equity firm, Permira, takes over these shares and the company itself.
Valentino, however, doesn't flinch, and in the face of these drastic changes, he works with Giammetti to organize a grand party in Rome to celebrate his 45th anniversary in the fashion industry. The celebration requires a huge amount of planning and includes the requisite disagreements (in "Italian, French and English") between Valentino and Giammetti. But, as usual, all issues are settled and the three-day celebration, one of the grandest events in fashion history, appears to have gone very smoothly.
At one point during the celebration, models wearing Valentino's signature red dresses are suspended before the dramatically lit Coliseum. These frames not only characterize the film's extraordinary cinematography but also seem to offer a farewell to a bygone era of fashion, which nearly comes to an end with the retirement of Valentino, announced weeks after the grand gala.
With its depictions of some of the most beautiful places (and people) in the world, the film is visually rich, and fashion enthusiasts will no doubt enjoy it because of its unprecedented access to Valentino and his fashion house. If the film is viewed within the context of today's economic situation, it demonstrates the way in which the famed industries of yesteryear have had to change so dramatically that sometimes they lose their identities altogether.
