The New York Times-20080127-A Final Curtain Call For Valentino- -Review-

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A Final Curtain Call For Valentino; [Review]

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AS happens with most final acts, Valentino Garavani's career was over before it could be fully absorbed. On Wednesday night, at the Rodin Museum, he closed the spring 2008 haute couture collections and at the same time ended 45 years in fashion. The models wore identical red dresses for the finale, so that the room seemed bathed in his favorite color. The audience stood, the applause started, and Valentino walked briskly to the end of the runway, dry-eyed and tanned from a ski holiday in Gstaad.

One of the locomotives of Valentino's career, and that as well of his partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, was that he allowed the media -- and, by extension, the public -- to see how lavishly he lived, whether in Rome, London or Gstaad. Although he regarded himself as a serious-minded designer, trained in Paris, few of his contemporaries seemed to derive as much pleasure from their lives. It showed in the clothes he made.

As the milliner Philip Treacy, who did the hats for the final show, said, He's the only designer who lived the life that people think designers should live.

Yet many of the television and wire-service reporters gathered behind ropes outside the Rodin, or jamming into the backstage area afterward, were not there for the story. They were there for the sound bite. Stopping Mr. Giammetti backstage, a television reporter said, her voice rising for effect: Tonight's the final show for you and Mr. Valentino. How do you think it went?

The smile on his face could not be read positively. Very well, Mr. Giammetti replied, looking in the direction of Valentino and the mob of photographers around him. Very good.

A temptation to say only the obvious and the necessary was precisely what the final bow of Valentino elicited, and to that extent it felt scripted. Last July, in Rome, Valentino and Mr. Giammetti celebrated the company's 45th anniversary with an incredible weekend-long party. In a way, Marie-Chantal of Greece said, that was the real send-off. She was with her husband, Pavlos, and her in-laws, the former monarchs of Greece. I think Rome was the big finale, and I'm seeing tonight as a little get-together, she said.

Many clients and old friends were in the front row, as well as a handful of super models. The designers who attended were Alber Elbaz of Lanvin, Miuccia Prada and Emanuel Ungaro. News reports said Carla Bruni, the former model who is dating the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had been invited but declined. Gwyneth Paltrow was supposed to have attended, according to a Valentino representative, but she was not feeling well.

As for the collection, it was true Valentino, as the designer himself characterized the breezy shapes and sorbet colors the night before the show. The matching day suits were light, in wool crepe or double-faced wool, and one mandarin-colored jacket had a bias drape across the back.

The couture effects were subtle and fascinating. A Mikado-style suit was made of vertical strips of black silk satin; at the hem of the belled skirt, each strip was folded back to reveal white satin and then pressed into place. The same pleating technique was repeated on the sleeves of the jacket. There were flower embroideries, but the exemplary looks were cooler -- like a long slim dress in pistachio duchess satin with a low back and swags of sky blue satin starting at the bust and spreading around the green into an overskirt.

Asked if his career, at the end, seemed to have gone by quickly, Valentino thought for a moment and said: Yes, fast in a certain sense, if I think that my collection at the Metropolitan Museum was in 1982. To me, that was like yesterday. I did a lot.

The spring couture shows were generally strong, with a huge palette and fantastical details taken from nature. At Givenchy, though, Riccardo Tisci got tangled in some tough 1980s tailoring. He seemed eager to project modern attitude, with snug black jackets and flaring wool miniskirts lined in white over black stockings and strappy stilettos. But despite some fresh-looking evening dresses with ruff collars, this ground was already broken by Azzedine Alaia and Claude Montana.

Before Valentino's show, Jean Paul Gaultier reminded everyone that couture goes on. Inspired by the sea, his collection was full of surprise and imagination. He opened with his chic pantsuits, now in marine blue and gray with sharp shoulders or wide, pleated sleeves. There were a few obvious show numbers, like an all-over gold sequined pants outfit that was drenched with water from a sponge the model carried.

But many of the dresses were as wearable as they were ingenious, especially a loose mini slip dress of panels of sea green embroidery interspersed with tiny loops of gold beads. The model Coco Rocha closed the show as a mermaid bride. After hobbling out on crutches, she dropped her sticks and released her latex fish gown by a zipper at the hem, and then set off toward the photographers, a pair of spiraling gold shells on her breasts.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: VALENTINO: A silk satin dress with vertical panels that folded back at the hem to reveal black satin, above. Right, a pistachio satin gown with a low cape back.; GIVENCHY: An evening dress in layers of silk offset with a complex ruff collar.; JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: Coco Rocha as a mermaid bride, in a sequined fishtail dress, above. Left, a slip dress of beaded panels and fringe. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEAN-LUCE HURe FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)