When Fashion Is Art

I don’t think you’ve ever seen a documentary film like “Valentino.â€�  Gorgeously photographed  and splendidly edited, the film is a valedictory to one of the greatest fashion designers of the last 50 years. 

   It’s also the love story of two men who have been together for all of those years and a surprisingly touching tale of creativity surrendering to the juggernaut of global big business.   

   Valentino Garavani answered Freud’s famous question — what do women want? Simply:  they want to be beautiful. And for 47 years he designed clothes to help women be just that.

    Perpetually tanned (or really perpetually orange,) perfectly coiffed hair in a pleasant if unnatural hue, looking out from photos with a haughty, slightly hooded, oddly quizzical expression, Valentino designed collection after collection to mostly ecstatic reviews.  But he was no businessman.

   At a restaurant in Rome Valentino met the incredibly handsome (to this day) Giancarlo Giammetti, who became lover then business partner/manager, then companion and alter ego for these many years.  It was Giammetti who built the Valentino brand and business that provided the enormous cash flow to support Valentino’s regal lifestyle:  homes in Rome, Paris, the French country side, the English countryside, New York; a private jet and yacht to transport the men, their friends and Valentino’s yipping pugs — wait until you see six of them lined up on a banquette in the jet.    

   But nothing lasts.

   Giancarlo sells the business to an Italian family, which two years later sells it to a conglomerate. This is not a world for either Valentino or Giancarlo, so they retire.  But...

   The forty-fifth anniversary dress collection, a retrospective of Valentino’s designs, hung in Rome’s Ara Pacis, no less, and the final celebratory dinner beside the Colosseum with dancers flying through the air was so amazing you’ll want to cheer.

   But you think high fashion is silly, artificial, theater of the absurd?  Well, of course it is.  But at its best, it rises to the level of art.      

   You can enjoy “Valentinoâ€� on many levels.  But I think you will enjoy it.

   “Valentino, The Last Emperorâ€� is rated PG-13 (I suppose because there are bared breasts.) It is playing at the Triplex in Great Barrington, MA.

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