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MASTER OF COUTURE

As Mr. Valentino said in the brief, handwritten note that opens the book, Master of Couture tells his story

Another couture season is upon us. And as the petits mains in Paris work up to the last second, sewing virtually invisible stitches into dresses that seem almost too extraordinary to wear, it's a fitting time for a look back at the book Valentino: Master of Couture, published by Rizzoli in 2012.

 

As Mr. Valentino said in the brief, handwritten note that opens the book, Master of Couture tells his story "from a different view." That view is from the workrooms of his atelier, where for many decades the white-coated expert dressmakers—nicknamed Le ragazze, or, "the girls" by Mr. Valentino and Mr. Giammetti—draped, pinned, embroidered and sewed Mr. Valentino's couture designs. The images of them in the book are taken from several sources: There are snapshots from Mr. Giammetti's private archive; photographs taken by Deborah Turbeville in 1993 and presented as a gift to Violante Valdettaro, the maison's former head of press; close-up stills from a film made for the Somerset Exhibition "Valentino: Master of Couture," which show the process of, say, creating a signature Valentino rose.

 

This being a book about Valentino, the glamour isn't limited to a peek into the making-of. There are fabulous pictures here of Mr. Valentino fitting a young Iman for a show, conversing with Sophia Loren over a cigarette, and basking in the sunshine in Capri. Some of Mr. Giammetti's old Polaroids are candid snaps of Liz Taylor, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli and Diane Von Furstenburg immersed in a late-night gossip sesh. Le Ragazze are part of that Valentino world, too: As Valentino: Master of Couture demonstrates, they helped to create the glamour of Valentino, stitch by (nearly invisible) stitch.

 

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