So, Valentino is one of my fave designers and a few days ago I got invited to attend a cocktail party at Neiman's (the original store of course ) and a screening of the new film, Valentino: The Last Emperor. The film premiered here at the AFI Dallas Film Festival last month but I didn't get to see it. Tonight the director is back in town for this screening and will do a Q&A. I love films about fashion designers.

Anyway, Valentino is one of my favorite designers, along with YSL and Roberto Cavalli. Like if I could afford it, I'd sho nuf rock the hell outta that shit.

So, who are yours? (and please post pics of some of their designs I can't find any pics I like. )
[Edited 5/8/09 7:57am]

About the film:

Documentary. Starring Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti. Directed by Matt Tyrnauer. In English and Italian, with English subtitles. (Not rated. 92 minutes. At the Embarcadero Center Cinema.)

After 45 years at the top of the fashion pyramid, designer Valentino Garavani retired in 2007, with a spectacular runway show and a spare-no-expense, three-day party in Rome. As the title of the new documentary "Valentino: The Last Emperor" suggests, he is fashion royalty.

In his first film, journalist Matt Tyrnauer (a longtime editor and writer for Vanity Fair) gives us a thoroughly entertaining look at the preparations for Valentino's last haute couture show and how, indeed, he represents the last of an era of highly trained couturiers who are being swallowed up by mergers and acquisitions.

Tyrnauer shows us an excitable prima donna who lives lavishly and happily in a rarefied world of enormous wealth: There are villas, yachts, private planes and constant adulation. But this is not a biopic; we learn next to nothing of Valentino's childhood or early years in the business, which is a shame. What we do get, however, is a confirmation of his remarkable talent for creating beautiful clothes. At its heart, the film is about the intense connection between Valentino and his business partner of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti, the brains behind the branding. They bicker, make up with a glance, then bicker some more.

By the end, we understand that without Giammetti, there would be no Valentino.

http://www.valentinomovie.com/

For artistic flare, the Dali of Fashion:

ANYTHING Galliano.

For classic flattering wearibility.(did I mention CLASSIC??):

Oscar.
His love of women is undeniable in his designs.

My kind of thread!
U know I can't post pix right now, but I will post some these weekend of things I actually own.
My favorite designers:
Roberto Cavalli
Dolce & Gabbana
Valentino uses the best fabrics (silks, cashmeres, fine wool, etc.) and the clothes are very well made and tailored
Vercasce - when Gianni was alive - I hate the trashy shit his sister Donatella makes.
Jean Paul Gaultier - in pieces - some of his designs are waaaaay out there
Escada - classics made with luxurious fabrics
Ralph Lauren Black Label and Purple Labe Collections
Chanel - in pieces also; some of it can be matronly
Herve Leger - those bandage dresses are so sexy!
TSE Cashmere & Loro Piana
I know there are more, but those are the first that come to mind.
Don't like too much: Prada (except shoes), Yohji Yammamoto, D Squared, Commes De Garcons, Eskandar

johnart said:

Love Oscar de la Renta too. In the last couple of years all of the major designers opened shops at a mall here in Dallas, we even got a Barney's. Oscar and Carolina Herrera's are two of my fave stores. They even have the Dallas Fashion Week events there. Last time I actually got to meet Cavalli and Marc Bower.

I really like Galliano too. I remember when I was a kid CNN had a style show every Saturday morning hosted by Elsa Klinsh (sp?) She was always on John's nuts.

SCNDLS said:

OMG I LOVED that show. I think it was CNN STYLE

johnart said:

Style with Elsa Klensch was a program that was produced from 1980 to 2000 on CNN. The program dealt with fashion and design from around the world and was hosted by Australian-born Elsa Klensch.

I think this show was instrumental in bringing high fashion to the masses and helping designers became household names and celebrities. I distinctly remember watching my cartoons then switching to this show EVERY saturday for years.
[Edited 5/8/09 8:57am]

Oscar and Carolina make the most beautiful dresses.
I forgot to add Dior as another favorite of mine.
Galliano makes sexy clothing

Madison Avenue Shoppers Weep for CNN Style with Elsa Klensch

By Jason Gay
June 17, 2001 | 8:00 p.m
These days, when fashion journalist Elsa Klensch strolls into the tony boutiques near her home on West 54th Street, store managers take one look at her and their mascaraed eyes begin to mist.

"When I go up Madison Avenue, they are weeping, " Ms. Klensch said on a recent afternoon. "They say there is no one . They say, 'We sold so much through you.' The customers don't come in and say, ' I saw such-and-such on Elsa Klensch . Have you got that in stock?' That now is a thing of the past." It is indeed. Last February, Ms. Klensch's 21-year run as the host of CNN's Style With Elsa Klensch abruptly came to an end.

Though Ms. Klensch officially resigned, hers was seen as one of the more symbolic, hurried departures amid the tumultuous restructuring of the cable network, now part of AOL Time Warner Inc. Ms. Klensch, after all, had essentially invented fashion television–and then suddenly, like a Fendi baguette, she vanished. It was a civil but rather unceremonious end.

A print veteran whose résumé includes stops on three stations of the couture cross– Women's Wear Daily, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue –Ms. Klensch built a program that became the fashion world's must-see equivalent of Monday Night Football . (Her very first CNN show featured interviews with Halston, Martha Graham, Andy Warhol and Liza Minnelli.) Also known for her airy Sydney accent, firm shoulders and that memorable, upside-down wok of thick auburn hair, Ms. Klensch gave viewers a close-up of the temperamental world inhabited by eccentric designers, hard-to-please editors and breadstick-thin models.

"She's kind of the Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly and Walter Cronkite of fashion television rolled into one," said Judy Licht, co-host of Full Frontal Fashion Weekly on New York's Metro Channel. "Before anyone in television really thought there was a hunger for it, she went out and said, 'If you build it, they will come.' And you know what? They did."

But Style With Elsa Klensch is gone, and the reformatted CNN has drastically reduced its fashion-news coverage. Today, ex-viewers do double-takes when they spot Ms. Klensch on the street, as if they've seen a friendly, tastefully dressed apparition. "It's amazing," Ms. Klensch said in an interview in her apartment, which overlooks the Museum of Modern Art. "People stop me and say, 'Oh, what happened to your show ? When are you coming back?' It's very, very pleasant … but I don't think the show is coming back."

If she has any residual bitterness about her parting with CNN, Ms. Klensch disguises it well. This is not particularly surprising. In a catty business, Ms. Klensch was always unabashedly positive: Instead of skewering designers whose clothes she didn't like, she simply kept them off her program. And even as CNN was crumbling around the reporter and rumors occasionally surfaced that her future with the network was in doubt, it was ultimately her decision to leave, she insisted. "I don't think any ending is exactly as one envisions it, but I was very happy with the way it all ended," Ms. Klensch said. "I mean, I wanted to stay there 20 years, I wanted to get to the new millennium, and they [CNN] were very nice to me."

Still, Ms. Klensch acknowledges that her business has changed–and not necessarily for the better. Whereas she brought a journalist's serious eye to fashion, many of her successors are bubbly chatterboxes with great teeth but little expertise. Much of today's fashion television consists of flashy segments filled with throbbing beats and quirky camera angles, making it virtually indistinguishable from a Missy Elliott video; by contrast, the comparably staid Style looked like the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour.

Ms. Klensch is unashamed. "I don't think fashion needs another thing like celebrities or supermodels to hang the story on," she said. "I sound like a snob saying this, but when I came to fashion, I came with a really great background: John Fairchild, June Weir … Grace Mirabella, Polly Mellen. I worked with all those people. I knew one hell of a lot about fashion, so my reports were more in-depth because I really understood. I used to sit in Geoffrey Beene's studio and watch him fit and go through the fabrics, look at the new things … not many of the people who are covering fashion today have had that opportunity."

Ms. Klensch's admirers say her absence from the airwaves is glaring. "Elsa was pretty much single-handedly responsible for training women to go to their TV's at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning to see Valentino's fall collection," said Women's Wear Daily deputy editor Janet Ozzard. Added Robert Verdi, another Metro Channel fashion correspondent: "She's the Obi-Wan." To people in fashion television, Mr. Verdi said, Ms. Klensch is "not unlike what Diana Vreeland is to the editing world."

But Ms. Klensch hasn't disappeared entirely, not by a long shot. Earlier this spring, she did a series of fashion reports for WNBC Channel 4, and she said she's in discussion with other networks ("We are talking, but you can't say anything until the deal is signed") and penning magazine articles. She also does work for the jewelry Web site Gem.Net, and there is a fashion-world mystery novel she longs to finish writing.

"If you knew how busy I was!" Ms. Klensch said. "My life, really, has started all over again." But the former cable star maintains her discretion, along with her trademark bangs. Ms. Klensch was asked if her freedom from CNN gave her more liberty to speak her mind, to plunge some daggers she may have withheld in the past. "No," she said firmly, "I'm still Elsa Klensch ." Tonight, it's up to fashion maven Lou Dobbs to discuss the latest Dior saddle bag on Moneyline .

I haven't been too updated on my fashion designers but JOHN GALLIANO and ALEXANDER MCQUEEN (baby John Galliano) have always been my faves. I love extremists.


Hey SCNDLS! Did you ever see UNZIPPED? I love that movie. I also love the movie CATWALK, Christine Turlingtons documentary.

SCNDLS said:

I think you're my long lost sister.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

I've seen both of them Miguel.
U ever see Pret A Porter?

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

No I haven't seen either of those. I'ma have to find them. I love the documentary on YSL and on Marc Jacobs. A good friend of mine is Marc's photographer and shoots all of his ads. He recently traveled all over the world with Marc shooting pics for an upcoming coffee table books.

I keep saying I'ma go to New York Fashion Week, since I gots tha hookup, but something always comes up. It's funny how all of these fashion geniuses have business partners/lovers that are the driving force behind their commerical success. Marc has Robert Duffy even though I don't think Robert is gay but he handles all of Marc's business stuff. That boy is quite spayshul.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

My brotha from anotha mutha.

1sexymf said:

Yes. Pret A Porter was a bit manic but I did really like it. Soooo many stars.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Loved Pret a Porter.

SCNDLS said:

UNZIPPED is about Isaac Mizrahi. He is soooo intelligent and hilarious. I loved this documentary.

I'm a huge fan of Christine Turlington. Her documentary is amazing.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Isn't Catwalk the one she actually directed? I love me some Mizrahi he ain't got no damn sense. I really like all the stuff he's done at Target, too. I didn't watch Project Runway, but I might watch his new show with Kelly.

SCNDLS said:

I love PROJECT RUNWAY and the only reason I'm going to watch Issac's KNOCK-OFF show is because of him.

Yeah, CATWALK was Christine's project. She takes a jab at Veronica Webb in the movie regarding the fact that she made this documentary. Veronica lets her have it. As we all know Veronica is very very intelligent. It was very uncomfortable moment but funny to me. You have to see it.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Yeah Veronica still a bad bitch even after them kids. I'ma have to check that out. Are you gonna watch Project Runway on Lifetime?

SCNDLS said:

Aw hell yeah!

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Isaacs knock-off "The Fashion Show" started last night.

Pretty entertaining.

Catchphrase to departing contestants: "We're not buying it. Goodbye, sweetheart."
[Edited 5/8/09 12:05pm]

johnart said:

I totally missed it but I download everything anyways.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

All I have to say is Gay Cantinflas.

You'll see what I mean.
[Edited 5/8/09 14:29pm]

johnart said:

OMG! Was this something they mentioned on the show 'cause my best friend texted me last night. This is what she said:

"I'm sorry, but Cantinflas looks like a gay Paleta Man (Mexican who sells ice cream on the street)."

I then told her that the rumor was that he was gay.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

First,

Rumor??? Are you talking about Mizrahi??? Where is this a rumor? Outta space?

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

No, no one mentioned Cantinflas, but I'm glad someone else sees it.

SCNDLS said:

I think he's talkin about Cantinflas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantinflas

SCNDLS said:

No we're talking about Cantinflas, a Mexican character actor who somewhat crossed over to America back in the 60's or 70's.

My favorite designer is Elsa Schiaparelli, she is a true designer in every sense of the word. She is famous for the bias cut.




My other favorite designer is my mother , she is a pioneer in women's liberation movement in Mumbai.
[Edited 5/8/09 22:31pm]