A Grand Italian Epic: Valentino Garavani

By Suzy Menkes
Taschen, $70.00, 576 pages

Valentino. Few people are known throughout the world by their first name, and Valentino Garavani is most certainly one of them. A man who has been in modern couture fashion since the very beginning, and who has put forth a lifetime of work that has defined the fashion industry for 60 years. Valentino, the most successful living fashion designer, is offered up in a fashionable coffee-table book, A Grand Italian Epic: Valentino Garavani.

A veritable cornucopia, the imagery in Valentino is as varied as the man himself and his career, and includes not only his drawings, designs, photo-shoots, and clothing, but also images closer to the man than his work; Finally articles, commentary, and interviews about and with the man behind fashion are included, making a sort of high-fashion scrapbook of the designer.

Valentino himself would be proud of the visuals within Valentino and the way it was put together, with an artistic eye and a grand style. Suiting the man it is about, tailored to not just be about him, but embody him and be him.

Reviewed by Jordan Dacayanan