beautiful clothes, not so beautiful ending

I was very intrigued by Alessandra Facchinetti's debut collection for Valentino, and while her spring collection was not as convincing, it had the ethereal, elegant quality I found so appealing about her work. I was not much of a fan of Valentino himself, though he did have a way with old-fashioned glamour. The new Valentino woman, I thought, retained that feminine quality, without feeling over-the-top and fussy.




And then before I got to know this woman better, Ms Facchinetti was declared out by the Valentino team, replaced by designers from the accessories team. Depressing. Even better are the parting shots, reported here on style.com - Alessandra Facchinetti --

“It was with deep regret that I learnt from the press that I would no longer be working with Valentino. This news came as a great surprise since the company’s top management has not yet seen fit to inform me of the above.

“I would like to thank Valentino S.p.A. for showing their appreciation of my “creative contribution and my sophisticated talent,” although I deeply regret the fact that this talent and contribution do not seem to have been adequately acknowledged."

Valentino Garavani --

“They are two serious, capable professionals that I had alongside me for many years. They always demonstrated an enormous respect and love for my work.

"There is an existing archive with thousands of dresses where they can draw and take inspiration from to create a Valentino product that is relevant today.

“It is a shame that their predecessor didn’t feel this need.

“I wish them all the success.”

Touche. I'm fond of the phrase "good men die young" because it's a very apt way of describing such situations, though I prefer to not have to use it at all. Perhaps it's a little strong to describe this situation, and who knows what it was really like behind the scenes, but bad luck seems to follow Ms Facchinetti. I hope she finds good support for her talent somewhere else.

As for the new designers of the house, Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, I have to say that I'm not wowed by people who have a hand in making gems like this one -



But let's not judge too hastily. In the meantime, good luck Ms Facchinetti. We hardly knew you. Let's end this one with some lovely images from Valentino's fall '08 ad campaign.




Images of Valentino collections from style.com; image of Valentino bag at bergdorfgoodman.com; images of ad campaign from flickr.