Valentino celebrates its iconic red colour in a book
Valentino has recently published a book dedicated to its iconic red colour. A vibrant, passionate red hue that the Roman luxury house’s founder, Valentino Garavani, has utilised since the label’s inception to make its unforgettable draped dresses. As Garavani himself emphasised, “for Valentino, red is not just a colour. It represents an immutable sign, a logo, an iconic element of the house, a value.”
It is an intense shade of red, blending coral and lacquer red with crimson and geranium red. At the end of the 1950s, when Garavani, then a young fashion student, was a spectator at the Barcelona Opera house, he was struck by the red colour of the dress worn by a lady sitting in a nearby box, and decided to make red the signature hue of the label he would set up in 1959.
The book is entitled Valentino Rosso (“rosso” means ‘red’ in Italian). Published by Assouline, it is available at select Valentino stores, priced at €250. In pictures, interspersed with texts written by British fashion journalist Charlie Porter, the 304-page book tells the story of the 180 red dresses and accessories that have characterised Valentino’s history.
A fascinating journey from the creations of Valentino Garavani to those of current creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, “from legendary silk ball gowns and haute couture chiffon creations to the Napa calfskin “Rockstud” slingbacks and the logo buckle belts with antique brass finishes,” said the label in a press release.
“This book is neither a retrospective nor a celebration. It is simply the way we work. It comes from the urgency to strengthen the relationship between the red colour and the Maison,” concluded Piccioli.
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