VALENTINO

If you managed to catch the spectacular Valentino exhibition at Somerset House this Winter, then you definitely viewed fashion history. With every ticket sold out for each day and the event being ranked 4/5 on Trip Advisor, this event was a major tourist at-traction in the centre of London. The Valentino: Master of Couture exhibition created a time line of Valentino’s history, exposed the secrets to his creative and signature techniques and presented over 50 of his beautiful creations.

The ‘Valentino: Master of Couture’ exhibition which opened on 29th November 2012 in Somerset House, was set up to celebrate the life and work of Valentino, in-cluding over 130 couture designs worn by the best of the best celebrities over a 50 year period.

Highlighted are some of Valentino’s most remarkable work such as the vintage dress worn by Julia Roberts in 2001 at the Academy Awards and Jackie Onassis’s wedding dress from his 1968 White Collection. The ex-hibition has been divided into three sections, including access to Valentino’s personal life and some on his best work to date. The last section allows the viewer to witnesswitness the behind the scenes into the making of some of Valentino’s creations and viewers can attempt these techniques at home. The luxury of this exhibition is the fact that the garments are not hidden by glass cabi-nets, so viewers can get up close and personal with the creations.

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born on the 11th May 1932 in northern Italy and at the age of 17 he moved to Paris to pursue his dream in working in the fashion industry. He studied at the École des Beaux Arts and after studying became an ap-prentice at Jean Dessès, where most of his most famous early illustrations were constructed. This apprenticeship shaped Valentino’s signature flare. 1962 was the breakthrough for Valentino as he produced his first couture collection in Florence, which was very successful and in 1967 his ‘No Colour Collection’ which consisted of beige, white and ivory palette was the collection that established Valentino’s famous ‘V’ trademark.

Valentino’s first garment to feature in Vogue was in March 1963 and Valentino accumulated a total of four Vogue covers over the years. Valentino’s designs live by one simple rule “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful” , and this has been his aim throughout all of his collections. Each of Valentino’s creations express a modern and clean cut feel to them, however always manage to appear feminine through the use of bows, flowers, lace, ruffles and always the finest of material.

As you walk into the in to the exhibition the walls are de-cecorated with timelines that show Valentino’s life whilst he was in the fashion industry, throughout the last 50 years.

The second section (which is designed as a 60 meter couture fashion catwalk) was made to allow the audi-ence to have a role reversal, as they are to walk down the catwalk to view the 130 creations which include evening gowns, dresses, trouser suits and capes pro-duced since the 1950’s. The garments are not places in chronological order of the collections, but instead are arranged in five decades of couture by the visual con-nections of each piece, for example the colour of the garments. The mannequins vary in shade such as mint, violet and mustard which indicate the decade of the design. The hair of the mannequins also changed to portray to the audience that Valentino does not change with fashion, but he changes with his own development.

The third section of the exhibition includes the pearl encrusted ivory silk wedding dress worn by Princess Marie Chantal of Greece in 1995. The veil involved 16 seamstresses working on this garment for six solid weeks. This construction time is called ‘Gargantuan’ and proves the extensive price of couture and the value of a one off piece. Like all of Valentino’s work he wants a narrative to be por-trayed through his work.

Overall this exhibition was an amazing display of Valentino’s life and work throughout the years and his passion for fashion really shone through. If you missed this extravaganza of an event then you have missed an incredible phenomena in the fashion world, however Somerset house and the V and A produce great exhibitions all the time which you should look out for.

For the latest events in the heart of London please visit :http://wwhttp://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/fashion-exhibitions-london-feature-roundup-3924.htmlSomersethouse:http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/valentino

The first part of the exhibition shows the original sketches which Valentino had drawn in the past for his early collections. Thank you letters were displayed, writen by many celebrities who have been styled in Valentino’s garments. There was also other selection of many invitations which were given out to other names within the industry. Samples of fabrics were displayed inin the end section which highlighted the different tech-niques of sewing and manufacturing which are exclu-sive to Valentino’s designs.

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