Glamour for glamour
It is difficult to deny that Valentino in his long career has created some of the most sophisticated dresses to be seen and worn, particularly for the evening, the time of the day in which his flamboyant and opulent style has expressed itself at the best, however, when it comes to considering the general output of his work, and its relevance in the history of fashion, things change. Compared to the influence and innovations of such great masters as Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and ultimately Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino's style can be seen as much more conservative and fixed. His concept of elegance and beauty is basically an exercise in glamour for the sake of glamour itself. Inventive as it may be it lacks the modernity, the conceptual depth and the daring spirit that has marked the work of the above mentioned designers, particularly that of the most influential of his contemporaries (and in general the most influential post war designer), Yves Saint Laurent. When one looks retrospectively to his collections, (and the recent celebration in Rome is an occasion to do this) it is possible to see clearly that he has always designed thinking only and exclusively for women of the so called jet set, the vacuous and glittering world of the great socialites, towards which he always had a particular craving. The Italian designer has never translated the Zeitgeist into his fashion, remaining constantly hooked to the more abstract imperative of a glamourized concept of femminility. In this sense, there are no sociological traces to be found in his creations, as there are in the collections of the four French masters or, more recently, in those of Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace, two of the most acute interpreters of fashion as a mirror reflecting social and cultural changes. All of Valentino's talent has been put at the service of a romanticised notion of what the upper crust of society is, and consequently, of how a women belonging to it must dress and behave. This woman is more the fabrication of Hollywood in the 30ies-40ies (and all of his work, this is its main limit, is foundamentally tied to the period of the mythical stars such as Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson, Merle Oberon and Joan Crawford), than anything else. At 75 years of age, Valentino cannot but go on doing what he has already done, even if most of his creations (but this issue concerns haute couture as a whole) seems anachronistic and too elaborate for today standards of life, even for the very rich for whom they are produced.
