Style classics: Valentino red dress has never gone out of fashion

Rarely has a designer so comprehensively owned one colour, which a new exhibition — Valentino: Master of Couture, opening today at London’s Somerset House — amply proves. The show is a stylish symphony in scarlet.

Valentino Garavani was born in provincial Voghera, Italy, then studied design in Paris before honing his skills with Jean Dessès and Guy Laroche. 

In 1959, he opened his own atelier and Rome’s stylish elite came flocking. The poppy-red that characterises many of his most famous gowns appeared in his first collection. 

Red hot: From left, Jennifer Aniston, Anne Hathaway and Liz Hurley have all worn Valentino gowns

This trademarked colour formula  — Rosso Valentino, a combination of 100 per cent magenta, 100 per cent yellow and ten per cent black — is said to have been inspired by the opera in Barcelona; it was there a teenage Valentino saw a glamorous patron wearing a red velvet dress and the image fixed itself in his mind. 

 

‘She was unique, isolated, fiery — the perfect heroine,’ he later said. ‘I told myself that if I were ever going to become a designer, I would do lots of red.’

He has certainly stayed true to his word.

Master of couture: An exhibition of the designer's dresses has opened at Somerset House this week