A year after the acquisition of a minority stake in his fashion house, the red-carpet favorite tells Suzy Menkes the move has helped him to develop.
Since launching his namesake label in 2005, Giambattista Valli’s beautifully constructed, feminine designs have become synonymous with the red carpet. His way with tulle knows no bounds. Each year the Roman designer creates four Giambattista Valli ready-to-wear collections, four for his diffusion line Giamba, and two for couture. He remained staunchly independent until the summer of 2017, when he allowed Artémis, the holding company of the Pinault family, to acquire a minority stake in the maison for an undisclosed sum. Previously he had self-financed his business, in part by consulting for Max Mara Atelier and directing Moncler Gamme Rouge, so that he could write his own story.
Almost a year since the acquisition, he told Suzy Menkes at the the Condé Nast International Luxury Conference that the Pinault family has helped him to become “an actor in my own story and not dub other movies.”
Giambattista Valli is about storytelling, the couturier explained of his creative process. “There are always chapters of a story that I have in my mind that are unfinished and continue every season. Giambattista Valli is a love story of a woman that is everyone.”
Each collection, for him, is about touching the emotion of these real women: “I don’t want to miss out on a potential love story, the potential harmony of a woman and a dress.” He believes the luxury industry is missing this poetry. “It’s important for creatives to give customers emotion, to give customers my vision of Parisian culture … We have been talking today about technology, but nourishment of creativity is important.”
The fourth annual Condé Nast International Luxury Conference is in Lisbon, on the 18th and 19th April. For more information, visit the website.