Dear Readers,
A May mix of Italian Connections: Couture’s Valentino, the fashion designer, not the silent screen star, became during the post-World War II years, next to the pope, one of the most admired men in Rome. In 1959 Valentino bid Paris “arrivederci”, decamped for Rome and after attracting a large only one name needed clientele, like Liz, Jackie and Sofia, he helped revitalize the Italian fashion industry and keep it in the fashion forefront for nearly fifty years.
A documentary, Valentino, the Last Emperor, was recently released and I can assure you gentlemen, this is an equal enjoyment film, so behave if you must, as if you are only going to please your lady love, but I guarantee, you will enjoy it too.
After World War II, Italy began to develop a reputation for bright, attractive sports ware, ignited by the worldwide popularity of those narrow, calf length “Capri pants.” Italian knots and colorful tissue thin silks also appealed to both vacationers and store buyers but it was to Paris that fashionistas turned for couture tailored clothes and evening dresses.
The designer who in many ways spearheaded the domestic development of Italy’s fashion industry, Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, was born on May 11, 1932 in Voghera, a small town about midway between Turin and Milan, in the north of Italy. Throughout his childhood he took a keen interest in fashion and in later years became fascinated by painting, sculpture and architecture.
A talent for drawing led him in 1949 to enroll in a fashion sketching course at the Santa Marta Accademia dell’Arte in Milan. He also took a Berlitz course in French, which would stand him in good stead when, a year later, he moved to Paris to study at the school run by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Valentino’s career got off to a flying start when, as a student, he won a competition for fashion design run by the International Wool Secreyariat.
It was a prestigious award which led to his first job in 1950, at age 18, at the couture house of Jean Dessès and later Guy Laroche. During this period, when Valentino was learning his craft, he paid a visit to the opera in Barcelona and was struck by the fact that all the costumes onstage were red. Valentino launched his first collection and salon in Rome in 1960. When he began making clothes for his own fashion house in Rome, Valentino favored red above all other colors.
It would become as associated with his name as shocking pink had been with Schiaparelli’s. That year, at a café in Rome, Valentino met the dashingly good looking Giancarlo Giammetti, an architectural student who took care of Valentino’s “paperwork” and soon became his longtime business partner and life partner.
On the soigné Via Condotti in Rome Valentino had a bull’s-eye hit with his first collection, its 120 dresses swept up by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Rita Hayworth, Claudia Cardinale, and Alida Valli, all of whom became devoted clients. The Roman buzz attracted foreign buyers; Vogue put Valentino’s clothes on the cover, and the patronage of Jacqueline Kennedy whet appetites for more.
But it was to the First Lady of Italy, Vittoria Leone, that Valentino became official couturier. Soon Valentino had shops in New York, Paris, Geneva, and London. And the perks of success, a palatial art-filled apartment in Rome, a villa in Gstaad, a penthouse on Fifth Avenue, a chateau near Paris, and an oceangoing yacht soon followed.
In 1991, to celebrate 30 years in fashion, Valentino threw a three-day party, reported to have cost 2.5 million English pounds, with 1600 guests. An exhibition entitled “Valentino: Thirty Years of Magic” was organized in Valentino’s honor by the Mayor of Rome at the Capitol Museum.
After nearly 40 years of superlative evening dress designing, Valentino Garavani, known simply as Valentino, sold his company in 1998 for 211 million English pounds. In 2006 President Chirac of France awarded this Italian the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. In 2007 retirement age finally arrived, he was 75 and had done it all: from Jackie Onassis’ wedding dress to J Lo’s.
He waved farewell with an extravaganza of a party in Rome and a glittering guest list that included his five pugs. And, via the “Valentino: The Last Emperor” documentary, you get to attend too. The film stars legendary designer Valentino and his longtime business and life partner Giancarlo Giammetti, who together built a fashion empire like no other.
An intimate exploration of the singular world of two of Italy’s richest and most famous men, the film joins them behind the curtains as they confront the final act of a nearly 50-year reign at the top of the glamorous and fiercely competitive world of fashion. Directed by Matt Tyrnauer, a Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine.
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Edward Galletti, of San Francisco, although better known as the founder of Liguri nel Mondo (Ligurians in the World Association) also did his part to help Italy’s post war fashion industry by introducing Bay Area women to the beauty and fine workmanship of Italian shoes.
And, because Signor Galletti recently celebrated “Buon Compleanno numero 94”, I want to belatedly wish Ed “Buona Salute a Cent’anni.” Edward Galletti was born on April 13, 1915 in Favale di Malvaro, Province of Genoa, Italy. At eighteen years of age, he left Italy to serve with the Italian Army in Somalia, Africa during the Italo-Ethiopian War. After serving in the military, he remained at Mogadiscio for twelve years, continuing his education by attending night classes and working during the day as warehouse foreman for the city of Mogadiscio.
When Ed decided to go into business for himself he opened a Restaurant and Bar (Bar Ristorante Impero), but Italy’s entrance into World War II made it impossible for him to continue his prosperous business. He was called back into the military and was later taken prisoner by British Allied Forces, until 1947.
Returning to Italy in September of 1947, his status, Refugee of War, enabled him to emigrate to the United States where, with the help of his brothers who were residing in San Francisco, he started a new life determined to become prosperous in America, the Land of Opportunity. On April 4, 1949, upon his arrival in San Francisco, he started working at his brothers’ shoe store at 541 Kearny Street.
His salary of $37.00 per week, although modest, helped Galletti reach his goal of a successful future. His determination caused him to work with intensity. After six months, with a small amount of savings and a loan from Bank of America, he bought 50% of his brothers’ business, leaving a debt which he paid off with monthly payments. He later became the sole owner of the business. Gradually, his business prospered; but Galletti did not want to stop at only one store.
He wanted a chain of stores; he wanted more persons working for him, thereby enabling him to help others, especially hi fellow Italians. This he succeeded in doing. Galletti became a virtual one man welcome wagon and assistance center. A lot of people will help a relative or friend of a friend from Italy get acquainted or settled in the Bay Area, but Ed Galletti was in the forefront of helping any Italian who found his way to Ed, via phone or in person.
Back in the late 1970s when NIAF (National Italian American Foundation) was just getting started, I flew to Washington D.C. with a group of San Franciscans and at a luncheon found myself seated next to an Italian gentleman who wanted to go to San Francisco but didn’t know anyone there. I spotted Ed Galletti, over in a corner extolling the virtues of NIAF to a mesmerized group of Italian American ladies and brought the gentleman over to make a quick introduction.
A few weeks later I received a call that the gentleman was in San Francisco, had a position with a local Italian bank, and his “fidanzata” (girlfriend) was in San Francisco with him, working in some classy boutique, all thanks to Mr. Ed Galletti, who puts himself out when others can’t be bothered.
Mr. Galletti, modestly, rarely mentions his “Welcome Wagon” ways, but through the years I have met dozens of Italians who have happily become Bay Area residents because Ed Galletti helped smooth the otherwise bumpy resettlement road with his welcome mat Italiano…
But I digress; back to Ed Galletti, the businessman: Galletti opened his first shoe store at 541 Kearny Street, San Francisco and purchased another store in the Mission in 1951. Galletti Bros. Shoes, a shoe store with a shoe repair department opened in 1959 and in 1962 another shoe store was opened at 113 Front Street. In 1963 a shoe store with repair department opened at the corner of 10th and Market Streets, and later in 1963 he leased a space in J.C. Penney Co. department store where Henry Goldsmith, then manager of the leased department, was delighted with the increased revenues his shop generated.
By 1968 Galletti extended his stores outside San Francisco and into the Serramonte Shopping Center in Daly City, opening a super elegant shoe repair shop with upscale shoe accessories. In 1972, a very elegant ladies’ shoe store featuring Marca Fiorentina Shoes imported from Firenze, Italy, was opened at the Embarcadero Center, followed buy Elegant Italian Shoe Salons at 470 O’Farrell St. (1974) and (1975) a leased space at Grodin’s Department Store, which carried the exclusive “Fiorentina” label shoes for women.
When in 1963 Galletti began importing shoes from Italy, the Fiorentina Co. of Florence worked for a period of time for Galletti at 75% of its capacity and Galletti became the exclusive and largest importer of Fiorentina shoes on the Pacific Coast. With a nod to his “Ligurian” roots in 1965 he began to import shoes from Luigi Dondero Shoe Co. of Genoa, but leather handbags and fine accessories were imported from Lula, another fine Florentine workshop.
Edward Galletti has received many honors, but those from the Town Council of Favale di Malvaro, gold medal for supporting the “Giornata dell’Emigrante”, City of Genoa, Italy, “The Swan”, symbol of the Ligurians in the World and from the President of the Italian Republic, title of Grand Officer and elevation to “Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella di Solidarieta’ Italiana” are most treasured by him.
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The Associazione Liguri nel Mondo, founded in Genoa, Italy, in 1986 by international founder Ed Galletti and expanded with a single Bay Area Chapter is truly an international success story.
There are now 80 Liguri nel Mondo chapters in five continents around the world, places where the finest of the Ligurian traditions, history and culture can be enjoyed and exalted. The Liguri nel Mondo, Bay Area Chapter continues to thrive under the capable presidency of Joseph Brignole.
Readers with friends or links to Liguria are welcome. For more info. Call Kathleen Delucchi (415)771-5896 or Joseph Brignole (510)653-0685.
10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410
