THOMAS: What is luxury today? VALENTINO: For me, luxury is being able to make a certain life that suits you, to be surrounded by those you love, to have the comfort that you need, and OK, to have objects around your homes that are dear to you because it’s what you have achieved. And you have luxury that I don’t like, a sort that is too showoff.
Where is luxury going? I don’t know. You have the big businesses which have gone mass. They try more and more, between China and European factories, to make dresses for 20 or 30, 40, 50 euros, which young people buy. This makes the [owners] very successful—they are all billionaires now. But I think you always go back to the beautiful things. People will always want to buy quality.
How has haute couture changed during your career? In the ’80s, haute couture was so decadent. We were selling hundreds and hundreds of dresses. Now when you sell 80, 90 dresses per season, that is the very top—and very few people do. The prices have become so ridiculous I am most ashamed to pronounce the numbers.
Why has it gotten so expensive? Because of labor, because of the time you need to do the dresses, and the cost of fabric and embroidery. And the volume is less. In the past, customers used to order 12, 15 outfits, maybe 18 a season. Now it is a maximum of three, four.
When you started 45 years ago, you only made couture. At that moment, there was only couture. Ladies with more money went to the big fashion houses and with less money to the dressmaker. It was fantastic, because everybody had dresses custom-made.
Do you miss that period? It was a period of my youth, when I was in fitting rooms all afternoons with customers, chatting. They were very relaxing and easy days. Now it is a big job.
Do you do the fittings for customers now? I have no time anymore. I just see them when I go to big parties or dinners or some charity evening. Instead, I am busy choosing fabrics and working on fittings for the many collections I have, and deciding thousands of things. But I ask my salesladies what Mrs. So-and-So chose, if the fittings went well, if she’s happy. Sometimes the seamstresses come downstairs in my office to show the dress on the mannequin.
Where do you get your ideas after 45 years? My dear, I have done everything. If I were to go upstairs and look at my archives I would see I have done everything. But I don’t go there. I draw new things, but the new things are always related to something that is upstairs—without looking or checking, you know?
How does it feel to be the last old-school couturier at the head of a house he founded? I am very proud, because I went on and on for decades, and time went so fast. If I flash back on all those past decades, they were like yesterday.
People keep asking if you are going to retire. When I think it is the moment, I will announce it. But now is not the moment. The clients say, “Don’t go! We need you!” That’s nice, no?
When you do stop will you do what Yves Saint Laurent did and shut down the haute couture atelier? Or would you like to see a young designer take it on? I would love to see Valentino haute couture go on. If the person is clever, my archives have plenty of ideas. It would be very easy.
