In 2021, Anne Hathaway married her husband, Adam Shulman, wearing a bespoke Valentino bridal gown.
“She’s a very good friend of mine,” the designer Valentino Garavani–who was honored at the 2023 British Fashion Awards Monday evening with an Outstanding Achievement Award–said at the time. “She’s like my daughter.”
It’s only fitting, then, that Hathaway should also be in attendance, gracing the Royal Albert Hall’s rain-drizzled red carpet in an archival gown from the Roman house’s spring/summer 1993 collection, alongside Valentino’s partner in life and business, Giancarlo Giammetti.
“Oh, I should talk? But I’m the businessman,” said Giametti while being interviewed by Hathaway’s former stylist Law Roach outside the entrance to the ceremony. “It’s vintage Valentino and Valentino designed it thinking about spaghetti,” he explained, running his fingers through the dress’s tasseled bodice.
“And I’ve always dreamed of being pasta,” Anne Hathaway replied.
Of course, Valentino hangs on an architecture of abundance, and so it should not come as a total surprise that Mr Valentino should seek inspiration from a plate of sauce-enveloped dough just as much as he would the Hollywood elite. On that note: Gwyneth Paltrow–who also wore Valentino to her wedding in 2018–arrived at the Fashion Awards in a Rosso Valentino gown from the brand’s autumn/winter 1965 couture collection.
The designer – who is 91 years of age – will be celebrated for his overwhelming contributions to fashion. “It has been an extraordinary adventure, filled with memories,” Giametti said in the days leading up to the event. “He is a person of few hidden facets, what you see is what he is: confident, disciplined, demanding of those around him and yet the most generous person, a dreamer.”
The duo–and their pampered pugs–officially stepped down from the label in 2008, passing the mantle to creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli.
“Valentino’s perfectionism was absolute,” he said. “This was his most important teaching. I think Valentino has injected beauty into everything he has ever done: as if to say, ‘No matter what you do, make sure it’s beautiful’.”
This story was originally published in British Vogue.
