Giancarlo Giammetti

Before he met his partner Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino says he was a freewheeling 26-year-old who just wanted to have a good time.

The Daily Telegraph asked the designer to describe a photo of himself working in 1958, when he'd just come back to Rome to set up his first atelier on the Via Condotti. He'd just spent several years in Paris, going to clubs with Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent after class at the Ecole de la Chambre de la Mode. Before heading back to Italy, he worked for designers Jean Desses and Guy Laroche.

"At this time, I just wanted to have fun, drive a sports car, sunbathe at the beach, wear leather pants, and dance," he said. "But not long after this photograph was taken, I went to have drinks with friends and met Giancarlo Giammetti. It was Giancarlo who started to grow the business [he dropped out of studying architecture to look after the financial side of Valentino's fashion house from 1960]. We moved to Via Gregoriana, where we had 100 people in the atelier. Giancarlo decided that I should show my collections in Florence as it was a very important market. It all took off for me when the buyers of the American department stores Bloomingdale's, Saks, Macy's, and Neiman Marcus discovered me there."

Giancarlo Giammetti and Valentino at a party in 2006.

>> Giancarlo Giammetti and Valentino Garavani are no strangers to disparaging Valentino's successors, and after current Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli presented their Spring 2010 couture collection last month, Giammetti turned to Facebook.

Valentino's longtime business partner posted on his Facebook page that he was “just speechless,” continuing, “not sad…just surprised.…We have always supported the new designers and we love them, but this time we have to distance ourselves from this ridiculous circus.”

Giammetti eventually deleted the comments after the reaction he received, but told WWD yesterday that both he and Garavani “are always supportive of the designers of Valentino, even if we don’t approve of their effort to be cool at all costs.” The house of Valentino declined comment.

If you didn't get a chance to see Valentino's flick in theaters, fret not, it's coming to DVD. Starting Sept. 8, you can add Valentino: The Last Emperor ($16) to your movie collection. Along with the original feature-length film, you'll get 46 minutes of bonus material — three mini features about the world of haute couture as well as the life of Valentino and business partner Giancarlo Giammetti. Just some things to look forward to: tours of Valentino's homes around the world, the making of one of his signature red dresses, and his farewell couture collection.

>> Valentino made headlines earlier this week for his reaction to the fashion on the Costume Institute Gala red carpet — he shook his head, muttered "no, no, no," and wiggled his finger, adding: "I think now all the girls look very ugly.  I saw the pictures of the Metropolitan gala evening [in New York] last week and I never saw something more ugly, all the girls have their legs out with the most terrible proportions."

He also told the Guardian that he has "so many ideas I could design a collection in two days but don't miss it at all" — now that he's retired he "tr[ies] to have a good time."  Although he hasn't made any red carpet appearances, his yacht has been spotted docked in Cannes — wonder what he has to say about all the Cannes fashion?

Or maybe instead of joining the parties in Cannes, his idea of fun now is staying in his yacht and having a meal cooked by partner Giancarlo Giammetti's chef, Pablo — in her GOOP newsletter this week, Gwyneth Paltrow raves over "GG, as he is affectionately known" and his chef's "rustic Italian food to die for . . . that can get me over there on the darkest and rainiest of London nights."

>> INSIDER WIRE —When Bruce Weber found out Matt Tyrnauer was directing the Valentino: The Last Emperor documentary, he gave Tyrnauer some advice: “Hire male models to work for you. It doesn’t matter if they know how to do anything; you’ll get double the time with Valentino and Giancarlo [Giammetti]. And let me tell you, no better advice has been dispensed. We did hire male models, and eventually the job they ended up doing was putting the mikes on Valentino and Giancarlo before we’d start filming each day. You know, it has to go under the clothes. Well, they loved that. They’d say, “Is it time to get our mikes on yet?” [The Cut]
*image: source

>> Valentino Garavani may have retired from fashion — or maybe not, there are rumors that he had a hand in the Fall 2009 Valentino collection — but either way, he's been a busy man promoting the impending US premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor tomorrow, March 18, in New York.  He does, however, say he's "extremely happy to have quit from fashion. All of the designers are doing the eighties. I hate the eighties. I did it, and I hate it. When I go to see my dresses of the eighties, I vomit.”  Instead, he's appearing on Oprah, The Martha Stewart Show, receiving a Rodeo Drive Walk of Style award, and contemplating designing for opera and ballet.

As for the movie, Matt Tyrnauer, the documentary's director, promises "one explosion after the other. Valentino is very impatient. He’s a Taurus. He loves the drama. There are divo moments and there are tantrums, and a lot of them are directed at the camera. It’s sort of like a cross between a hurricane and a cyclone." Which made it interesting when he first showed Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti the director's cut: "It was not easy.  To tell you the truth, they kind of freaked out. We had some healthy discussions and multiple screenings over the course of several months. And they have come to accept it."

You've probably seen the pug-filled trailer by now, but another clip is below, featuring Karl Lagerfeld telling Valentino after his show, "That's the way it should be done.  Compared to us, the rest are making rags."  After the movie hits New York, it travels to Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles — information here.

The clip! »

>> Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, whose first collection for Valentino debuted yesterday seem to have the approval of the house's namesake.  Valentino Garavani, who sat front row with partner Giancarlo Giammetti, leapt to his feet as soon as the show was over, applauding:

"They did a very good job. It is a collection that is perfect for this very moment.  It was quite emotional to see all my clothes, done by these people who loved me for 12 years, and they are really sensational. They were always staying with me during my fittings of haute couture.”

But other members of the audience weren't so convinced about the collection, which "could have been sourced right out of the house pattern archive," in the words of WWD.

"For the most part they were just . . . imitations" »