Valentino has slammed Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz - Sept 29, 2020
Fashion designer Valentino Garavani has slammed Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, for dressing like "bag ladies". The Italian clothes designer believes modern day stars should always look glamorous and has singled out the two actresses for dressing down as soon as they are off the red carpet.

The designer told German newspaper Die Ziet: "Today you see Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz running around looking unkempt in jogging trousers, they look like bag ladies, like homeless people. "In the past, actresses had to commit in their contracts to appear in public like stars when they left their homes."

The Italian designer made his name in the 1960s and still designs for the Valentino fashion group. He dresses actress Gwyneth Paltrow and is often seen with her at red-carpet events such as the Venice film festival. Valentino also designed the wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Kennedy for her marriage to Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

Valentino dresses down - 19/12/02
The designer Valentino is launching a new casual sportswear range for autumn/winter 2003.

The new collection, which will be produced under licence, is due to be unveiled in January


Biography

Valentino Garavani was born in Voghera, north of Milan on May 11, 1932. While attending high school he shows a precocious artistic temperament and soon becomes interested in fashion. He takes courses in fashion design and studies French to prepare himself to move to Paris. He is 17 years old when he arrives in the then world capital of fashion and couture. After a few years’ apprenticeship in the Fashion Houses of Jean Desses and Guy Laroche.

Valentino returns to Rome at the beginning of the 60s to open his own atelier in Via Condotti. Those are the years of the Dolce Vita and many Hollywood stars who come through Rome discover Valentino and determine his quick fame. Valentino’s international debut takes place in 1962 in Florence, the Italian fashion capital of the time. His first show at the Pitti Palace is welcomed as a true revelation and the young couturier is submerged by orders from foreign buyers and enthusiastic comments on the press.

His "V" logo is famous all over the world. Women such as Jacqueline Kennedy, Farah Diba and Elizabeth Taylor have worn his creations. By 1965 Valentino has already established himself as the leader of Italian fashion. In 1967 he receives in Dallas, Texas the Neiman Marcus Award, equivalent to the Fashion Oscar. At the end of the 1960’s Valentino meets Giancarlo Giannetti, an architecture student who abandons university to become his business partner. Giammetti’s entrepreneurial genius will prove fundamental to the worldwide expansion and success of the House.

By 1972 Valentino has already launched his women’s and men’s ready-to-wear collections and has opened his first boutiques in Rome and Milan. In 1978 Valentino launches his perfume during a gala in Paris, where guest star Mikhail Baryshnikov dances Tchaikowski’s La Dame de Pique at the théatre des Champs Elisées. In 1986 Valentino is appointed by the President of the Italian Republic "Cavaliere di gran Croce": the Italian highest official award.