An evening at the opera with Valentino Valentino Garavani honoured by the British Fashion Awards

FASHION

Anne Hathaway and Giancarlo Giammetti on December 4 2023 in London

©Maison Valentino

Fashion, 7 December 2023: Valentino Garavani was honoured with the Outstanding Achievement Award at the British Fashion Awards on Monday evening. This was celebrated with a fashion show featuring 24 of his most iconic red Valentino dresses against the backdrop of "An Evening at the Opera with Valentino", the ballet that was filmed last month in his native town of Voghera, which has dedicated its theatre to him. Valentino Garavani did not come himself, however, but his long-time business partner Giancarlo Giammetti accepted the award from their muse Gwyneth Paltrow.

More than 3,000 guests came to the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday to celebrate one of the most important nights in the fashion industry, the 2023 Fashion Awards. Only last year, head designer Pierpaolo Piccioli was honoured with the Designer of the Year Award. He himself attended with his family, but numerous testimonials and friends also came to the award to celebrate Valentino's life's work. These included Anne Hathaway, Andrew Garfield, Daphne Guinness, FKA Twigs, Gillian Anderson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rosie Huntington, as well as Prince Pavlos and Princess Marie Chantal of Greece, whose exquisitely royal wedding dress Valentino Garavani had once tailored.

The staging of the opera was spectacular, with music by Spanish composer Micka Luna. The ballet was conceived by Eleonora Abbagnato in collaboration with Daniele Cipriani.

Valentino Garavani and his business partner Giancarlo Giammetti stopped working actively in the Valentino business around 15 years ago. Since July, Valentino has been under the umbrella of Kering, which bought a 30 per cent stake in the brand from Mayhoola, the Qatari investment fund, with the option of taking over the brand completely in the next five years.

Whilst the event is a celebration of the industry itself, the evening is also a fundraiser for the British Fashion Council. The Fashion Awards aim to bring together a global community in London to support leaders of change in fashion and nurture the next generation of creative talent. The event also serves as the main fundraiser for the BFC Foundation, which in turn supports the British fashion industry. The Designer Designer of the Year Award went to Jonathan Anderson for JW Anderson. Model of the Year was the "curvy-model" Paloma Elsesser. Edward Enninful, the outgoing editor-in-chief of British "Vogue", received the Trailblazer Award.

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The most beautiful photos of the evening