By Hadley Freeman (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-29 07:17

PARIS: When Valentino took his final bow in Paris last week at his final collection before retirement, there were plenty of front-row female tears. Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu and various Ladies and Dames all pitched up to pay their respects, summing up the designer's reputation for attracting the celebrities and what Tom Wolfe dubbed "social x-rays".

The last collection of fashion guru Valentino displayed on Paris catwalk. AFP

But there was one notable non-appearance, a female Banquo's ghost hovering over the catwalk.

Alessandra Facchinetti, the 35-year-old designer who is to take over as the label's creative director, was as absent from the couture show as a flat shoe.

Ever since the Valentino Fashion Group (VFG) announced in September that the relatively little-known Facchinetti would take over from the renowned designer, there has been as much speculation about what she will produce as there has been about what has gone on behind the scenes.

In December, customers and critics were given a hint at a small pre-collection show, the first by Facchinetti under the Valentino name.

The fashion trade newspaper Women's Wear Daily praised its "lightness and ease... without forsaking... sophistication and elegance".

"Stepping into the shoes of a living successful designer is very difficult," says Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue.

It must be even more difficult for a designer who tried and failed to do this only two years ago during a brief and unsuccessful time at the helm of Gucci, and it must be even harder when the designer you are replacing is allegedly not all that eager to hand over the reins.

When VFG announced the impending changeover it clothed its knife in a velvet case, taking pains to stress its admiration for Valentino's "genius".

Nonetheless, the swiftness of the axe's descent led some commentators to suggest that the designer had been pushed out by the new owners of VFG, the private equity firm Permira.

Valentino's lifestyle is legendarily extravagant and Permira is said to have balked at his personal bills.

In a recent profile in the New Yorker, the designer conducted the interview on his 46 m yacht, which houses four flat-screen TVs, a full-time staff of 11 and an art collection that includes works by Picasso and Warhol. Two of the Warhols are prints of Valentino himself.

But such extravagance smacks of anachronism in a fashion world that is increasingly controlled more by money-men than millionaire muses. If VFG decided it wanted to work with a lower-key designer, Facchinetti is not a particularly original choice.

The Gucci Group appointed her creative director in 2004 when it was looking for just that after the departure of the high-profile and glamorous Tom Ford. Ominously, though, she lasted only two seasons.

Facchinetti was born and raised in Italy, the daughter of Roby Facchinetti, singer of the delightfully named Italian rock band Pooh.

She started her career working through the ranks at Prada before moving to Gucci, where she worked under Ford before replacing him. But the reviews for her collections were lukewarm.

Suzy Menkes, the fashion grande dame of the International Herald Tribune, described them as "going nowhere". Cathy Horyn, fashion critic for the New York Times, said she couldn't even concentrate on the show: "What's for dinner? When the raciest label in fashion can't compete with the prospect of a pizza, you know it's in trouble."

Even though Gucci's sales stayed stable, just 10 days after Facchinetti's second collection in March 2005 the Gucci Group announced that she was "leaving the company after a disagreement with management".

"Today I feel much clearer about what I want and who I am," Facchinetti said in December.

She went to Moncler and gave the outerwear label a fashion reputation, and ostensibly restored her own.

"I'm very interested to see what Facchinetti does at Valentino, but she has a very hard road ahead: She brought a sexy hard edge to Gucci but I'm not sure if Valentino, which is a very feminine label, needs an edge," says Marigay McKee, director of womenswear at London department store Harrods.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of VFG's choice is that it has chosen a woman, a move the New York Times described as intriguing.

Fashion can be an oddly sexist industry, with men still dominating the most important positions. Facchinetti will be the only woman at the helm of a major haute couture house.

"The average Valentino customer for us is a stylish woman in her mid-40s. I think they will be hoping that by appointing a younger woman they will attract a younger, hipper customer," says McKee.

"They have gone against type with their choice: She's a woman and she hasn't come out of the Valentino stable," adds Shulman.

This, perhaps, even more than the removal of the original elderly designer, is the clearest sign that VFG is determined to take this most precious of fashion houses into the 21st century.

The Guardian

(China Daily 01/29/2008 page19)