lifestyle SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 FASHION Blurred lines help couture king to ready-to-wear success iambattista Valli says his fledgling ready-to- Like his compatriot Giorgio Armani he guards the wear line is thriving-thanks to spillover syn- independence of his operation fiercely, even if Gergy from a haute couture operation that that means foregoing the additional investment has made him a darling of the celebrity A-list set. that could come with a stock market listing or a The Paris-based Roman designer has made his partnership with a luxury brand management name with spectacularly beautiful and eye-water- company. ingly expensive made-to-measure creations for the After four seasons of the Giamba line, he says he likes of singer Rihanna, George Clooney’s wife is happy with its steady expansion. “It is successful Amal and, most recently, actress Emma Stone, who in a business way but it is successful too in the real wowed this month’s Venice film festival in one of world of women. And from a celebrity point of his dresses. view, from an editorial (coverage) point of view. So In the process, Valli has been credited with mak- it is very good, I am very happy. ing haute couture more relevant than it has ever “There is this kind of freshness it has-it’s youth- been and providing a bridge between a rarified ful, (about) embellishment, romanticism, but also a world and contemporary popular culture. bit of the rebellion that there is in the haute cou- The way he sees it, it’s all about ideas, and he ture I do. Some of the shapes come straight from has got so many, he needs different outlets to pre- the last couture collection.” vent them cluttering up his brain. “I have the exact Valli admits he felt flattered recently when he opposite problem of someone having no ideas, my sat next to Armani’s niece at an industry lunch and problem is too many ideas,” Valli tells AFP in a back- she highlighted the similarities between her 82- stage interview after the launch of his latest collec- year-old uncle’s business model and that of Valli, tion for his ready-to-wear label Giamba in Milan. “It who turned 50 earlier this year. was Karl Lagerfeld who said ‘the more you do, the Armani said recently that “absolute independ- less you do’ and that is totally right for me,” he says. ence” was vital to him and Valli shares that credo. “There are other designers that work in a different “Every single product that I do has to be 100 per- way, they do one thing and it is already a lot for cent DNA of the house,” he said.—AFP them. But you know for me one inspires the other MILAN: Designer Giambattista Valli greets the audience at one, they go in parallel. “I have an idea and say it the end of the show for fashion house Giamba during the doesn’t fit for (couture line) Giambattista Valli but it 2017 Women’s Spring / Summer collections shows at Milan fits for Giamba, and it doesn’t fit for Giamba but it Fashion Week on September 23, 2016. —AFP does for Giambattista .... it is very nice.” The latest Giamba show featured a soundtrack including Valli’s friend and muse Soko and was staged in an erstwhile aristocratic residence in the centre of Milan, the Palazzo Litta. ‘100 percent DNA’ Valli said he had imagined a back story of a young woman who had been raised in the house returning to it after a stay in Los Angeles. After a night of partying with her oldest friends, she crashes out in her clothes and wakes up jet- lagged at 3:00 pm, puts on some music and pads around — it was the mood of that particular moment he wanted to infuse in his latest collec- tion. “She walks around in the building in a very comfortable way,” Valli explains. “She is a little bit for me like Alice in Wonderland. She is the kind of young woman or girl that is not scared to experi- ment in life, she is not scared to know other cul- tures, to mix it up, to have her own style, to be just herself...” Being true to yourself is important to Valli. MILAN: Models presenting creations for fashion house Giamba during the 2017 Women’s Spring / Summer collections shows at Milan Fashion Week on September 23, 2016. — AFP photos.