So This Is It Valentino

The finale at the last Valentino show. (Jean-Luce Huré for The New York Times)

The ovation was still going as I moved toward the backstage, slowly and then at a brisk walk. I passed Marisa Berenson and Marie-Chantal of Greece, who was with her husband Pavlos and her in-laws, Queen Ann-Marie and King Constantine. I saw Uma ahead of me. I caught up with Uma in the backstage and asked her what she thought of the show, half embarrassed that I bothered. “I have no comment to make at this time,” she said, as if she had said it a million times before. Okay. Wouldn’t “beautiful” have worked just as well? I turned away, toward the mob of photographers and models, all of them in identical red dresses, gathering with intensity around Valentino. Natalia V. had tears welling in her eyes. I saw Carlos Souza discount soccer jerseys, who has done the press for Valentino for years, and I asked him if the girls were going to keep their red dresses. They’d all came out in red for the finale. “For sure!” he said, watching Valentino and the mob. Later, I asked one of the models about it and the look she gave me said, “Are you kidding?”

Giancarlo Giammetti, who is Valentino’s business partner, was in the middle of the room. He looked calm, amused, overwhelmed. Television reporters were sticking microphones in his face. “Tonight is the final show for you and Mr. Valentino,” a TV lady began, “How do you feel?”

Valentino greets Uma Thurman backstage after his final show. (Jean-Luce Huré for The New York Times)

“Very well,” he replied, smiling. “Very good.”

Valentino had moved into the room, to give himself and his guests more space. The photographers were pushing closer and the press handlers were pushing some of them back. Claudia Schiffer had arrived.

Giammetti looked up. “I think we’re going to get killed,” he said.

One of the looks from Valentino’s last show. (Jean-Luce Huré for The New York Times)

I left the backstage and returned to the front of the Musee Rodin. So that was it. The end always comes very fast, and it’s never, ever what you expect. Of course, the clothes were beautiful. The Rome collection, in July, was much more spectacular and moving. But these clothes were very fine. They were flawless with a hint of melancholy. Pistachio and pale blue are summer colors but they are also homesick colors. That’s what I think, anyway.

Coco Rocha as a mermaid bride in Jean Paul Gaultier’s show. (Jean-Luce Huré for The New York Times)

Earlier in the day, I saw Jean Paul Gaultier’s show. Gaultier always starts slow, and sometimes he has a good finish and sometimes he doesn’t. Today, his clothes were terrific—very witty and imaginative. Like Lagerfeld, he had an ocean theme. He used lovely marine blue and grays for his chic pantsuits, and then started including embroidery and more exotic colors to represent the texture of coral reefs, kelp and shells. He had a very sexy mini halter dress made of panels of pale green beads interspersed with channels of gold beads. Coco Rocha came out as a mermaid bride. At first she hobbled on crutches, then she stopped and released her tight, shimmery dress by a zipper at the hem. She walked on, two gold shells pointing like missiles from her breasts.

Givenchy was a little disappointing. Riccardo Tisci had some good tailoring, especially the first jacket (worn by Maria Carla, with a flaring black mini skirt lined in white silk), and the ruff-collar evening dresses were interesting. But he couldn’t seem to find a project, and some of the clothes, which made me think of things from Alaia and Montana, just looked overworked.

Riccardo Tisci’s creations presented at the Givenchy show. (Jean-Luce Huré for The New York Times)

Marko, I don’t think those HC sales numbers are wrong. But I think they can be misleading. I doubt the pool of customers has increased for haute couture in the past five years. And I don’t think they optimistically suggest any kind of revival. (You can’t expect a revival when the chief practitioners of savoir faire are retiring or getting on in years, and there is nobody really available to succeed them.) The fact is there are some big spenders from Russia and the Arabian Gulf countries, and some of them are buying three or four pieces a season. Couture is always counted by the piece, rather the outfit. And, of course, the prices are higher than ever. My guess is the number of new clients is roughly equal to the number of old-time clients, who just aren’t interested in playing the game anymore.