Valentino: The Last Emperor Matt Tyrnauer

One has the feeling that the fashion world, with all its luxury, glitter and vanity is a frivolous parallel universe, free from the rules and restrictions of real life. We tend to forget that behind all the silk, fur and Swarovski crystals fashion is a commercial industry, a huge one in fact. Making profits of billions of euros, people who are in the business of selling clothes are very much aware of the impact that they have - not only by putting brand new trends onto the market, but also by taking advantage of the power of well-known labels, whose name alone is taken as a guarantee of quality.

Valentino Garavani is not just any man. In the exclusive world of haute couture, he’s The Man. 45 years have passed since he and his life-partner Giancarlo Giammetti started the “Valentino Company” – which, with its high-end products, has continuously set standards on catwalks around the world. The designer’s pieces have been worn by the most glamorous women: from classic beauties such as Jackie O and Audrey Hepburn to today’s younger starlets and skinny models whose names we’re not supposed to remember.

Matt Tyrnauer’s Valentino: the Last Emperor portrays Valentino’s last two fashion shows, the latter being his 45th Anniversary Fashion Show, and the rhythm of his life and work surrounding these two events. Is he vain? Is he self-consumed? Is he something else than a pretentious short man with a tanning obsession? Tyrnauer doesn’t try to answer these questions: he takes them for granted. But he does go beyond the obvious superficial caricature. The film shows clearly the genius and creativity behind Valentino’s work: at the end of 2007, he was one of very few designers who still worked on true haute couture - hand-made dresses that take hundreds of hours of work, and thousands of euros.

This film is a glimpse into how the business of fashion is self-destructive – how a man with such an enormous influence is eventually forced to leave his throne, after the company which once belonged to him is sold. Maybe not with modesty, but certainly genuinely, when asked what will happen if he retires, Valentino says “Après moi, le deluge”. Indeed, after him comes the flood.

Lura Limani