It began on the Via Veneto, July 31, 1960. On a warm Sunday night, the paparazzi were prowling the cafés, waiting to snap a screen goddess or perhaps a dowager principessa—the scene Federico Fellini immortalized when La Dolce Vita was released earlier that year.
Giancarlo was ensconced in his seat when Valentino Garavani walked in. The 28-year-old Northern Italian already had a worldly air, having apprenticed in Paris with Jean Dessès, couturier to the Greek court and European nobility. Newly arrived in Rome, Garavani was launching his own label. He was "incredibly seductive, with his deep tan, blue eyes, and soft but intense way of speaking," Giammetti wrote in his 2013 Assouline book, Private: Giancarlo Giammetti.
" Via Condotti, undici, " Garavani replied, giving Giammetti the address of a baroque 16th-century palazzo where he had rented the second-floor apartment to present his first collection. The year before, on a makeshift runway in a frescoed salon, he'd sent out 110 looks. Among them was an hourglass-shaped cocktail dress of draped tulle bright as a poppy. The first dress Valentino ever produced in red, it was so delightful he gave it a name: Fiesta.
In retirement, Garavani and Giammetti hardly faded away. Front-row fixtures at nearly every Valentino show, they entertained friends like Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Hathaway, and Madonna at their homes and aboard the TM Blue One, their 152-foot superyacht.
"There's nothing else like it," says Hathaway about the duo's world. "It's elegant, intentional, and elevated, yet relaxed, cozy, and fun. They are able to choose a lot of things that we think of as contradictory and make them complementary. I'm always amazed at how inspired and recharged I feel when I come away from my time with them."
In 2016 the pair launched the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti (FVG) to support their charitable and cultural endeavors. Now, as they sail into their golden years—"Vava" turned 93 in May and "GG" is 83—they are about to unveil their legacy project: an international center for the arts, fashion, and culture housed in a 10,800-square-foot palazzo next door to their old headquarters, which they have dubbed PM23, from its address in Piazza Mignanelli. What's more, while Giammetti was overseeing the renovation of that building, he acquired a lease on the second-floor apartment on the Via Condotti.
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