Valentino - RIPJanuary 23, 2026 Like Karl, Armani, Oscar, Dior, Balenciaga, Worth all were known by one name. Valentino was no different. You might say he was a wannabe or even a late-comer, but he couldn't
have achieved the mark he did on fashion without real skill and talent. It just doesn't happen, particularly over the period of 74 years, where he worked under Dior, Balenciaga and Jacque Fath - all major designers in Paris.
He returned to Rome and worked under a few designers in Rome, then in 1960 he started his own house, where for 47 years he designed and then retired in 2007. But he had many awards and retrospective shows that he could fortunately enjoy before he got too
old to enjoy them. But you can not call someone who did all these gowns a wannabe or anything but extremely creative and knowing his client.
You don't design with this sort of clientele and be either a copier or wannabe.
Above all, like his contemporaries Karl, Oscar, Armani, and Dior, people knew his work would be beautiful, elegant, flattering, and excellent in design and workmanship. So much of that is gone today. Much of it is held by us sewists who do our own
clothes. We know what that excellence is. We know what that beauty is. We know it because we make it. But the truth is that the majority of women today have no idea about that. Currently, I'm working with a client who has never had anything made for her before. I'll have photos after the wedding, but she's in shock about how comfortable she is and how flattering she looks. She had no idea. I knew this could happen cause I do it for myself every day. Last Thanksgiving, when we set out to find something for her daughter's wedding this March, the absolutely worst clothing was all we could find. Finally, after looking for about an hour, I said, "Please let me make something for you," and she was like she didn't want to bother me
with this, and I said, " It would be so much easier, and you will look so fabulous. We can get the fabric now on "Black Friday" sales, and then visit me a couple of times (she lives out of state, but her daughter lives in one of my city's suburbs), and we'll be done, and you will love it.
This is exactly the sort of thing that these wonderful, beautiful designers of an age of beauty and excellence did for their clients over and over. These wealthy clients knew they
could have this. But not everyone knows this. These wealthy clients knew they could have this
Here's a great exchange on his creative process. Very much like what we do when we are designing.
Valentino is the last of this era who established and built his own maison, and so
sorry to see him go. I'd like to think there would be a return sometime to excellence in design and clothing construction, but I don't know. This little movement toward quiet quality speaks to my heart and soul like no other, because this is exactly what Valentino, Karl, Armani, and Oscar did for so many decades. It is truly the death of an era, and hopefully a new one will start.
If not, I will start my own movement and be thoroughly happy while others look
on, thinking, "Yeah, I could get a coat like that, and a dark sweater like that, and pants like that," but then go out to try to find them, and they aren't there. Well, they are, but only for those who create their own clothes and for those who know that you actually can wear beautiful clothes, even if you aren't wealthy.
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