023 Giambattista Valli

Giambattista Valli is an extremely talented Italian designer, who was born in Rome and has now built up his own empire.  A fashion empire, dedicated to creating romantic, feminine and beautiful clothing for women who want to look and feel special.

Valli has done something that very few modern designers have been able to accomplish. He spent years honing his craft alongside great designers like Roberto Capucci and Emanuel Ungaro, before making the bold choice in 2005 (when most of his peers were becoming designers for big name fashion houses) to launch his own signature label. In fact, he reportedly famously passed on taking over at Valentino to start his own company. Which, as anyone in fashion will tell you, was a pretty ballsy move.

Since then he has slowly and meticulously grown his brand. Supported by devoted gaggle of beautiful fashion plates, that have been affectionately called Valli Girl; that include Bianca Brandolini d’Adda, Charlotte Dellal, Lee Radziwill, Queen Rania of Jordan, Diane Kruger and Giovanna Englbert.

He even had the backbone to take on the rarified air of haute couture, launching his line in 2011. He now counts more than 250 points of sales around the world in over 40 countries across the globe. Oh, and did I mention, beside building his own brand, Valli was behind the Moncler Gamme Rouge womenswear line, designing it for a decade.

So the man knows how to multitask. He is also fiercely independent and, until this past year, rebuffed any offers from groups to bring the Valli brand into a luxury fold.

But last year Valli teamed up with François Pinault and signed an agreement with Artémis, the French holding company of the Pinault family, which acquired a minority stake in the house. This means that the Valli brand is currently in the throes of some major expansion, as the designer plots out the future of his namesake label.

One other thing you need to know about Valli, he loves beauty. He surrounds himself with it, hunts it out wherever he goes and uses it as a benchmark for everything he does.  So it shouldn’t be surprising that instead of doing our interview in a sterile office setting he invited me to tea at his hotel, where - sitting by a pool and overlooking a glorious vista - we talked about his past, present the exciting future he sees for his house.