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"  Smoky layers of tulle wrapped over corsets with visible whalebone, Goth-lite lace masks, oversize leather fans flaring from the backs of vertiginous stilettos, unpolished hair, nude lips, black black black: These are not exactly what we know to be the house codes of Valentino, the label founded in 1959 by Valentino Garavani. But that&amp;#039;s what Valentino&amp;#039;s new designers, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, sent down the runway for fall 2009&amp;#039;s haute couture show. It was their third collection as co\u2013creative directors and the first where they really let themselves depart from the soign\u00E9 suits, wispily feminine evening gowns, prim little cocktail dresses, neat-as-a-pin updos, and impeccable fire-engine lips for which Valentino, who retired in 2008 at the age of 75, was known.  Mr. Valentino, as he is always called, is one of the inventors of the patrician restraint that became synonymous with his name. And thanks to the millions he earned from it, Garavani himself became a citizen in good standing of the Gstaad\u2013Saint-Tropez\u2013New York world that wore his uniform. I&amp;#039;ve interviewed Mr. Valentino at home in New York City, and what they say is true: His place is staffed with butlers and swathed in $400-a-yard upholstery; his cashmere sweater is as impeccable as his pocket square; not a hair on his well-tanned head is out of place. Compare that tableau to his replacements, and the darker, less conventional vision they were picked to create makes a bit more sense. A quick study of Chiuri, a 44-year-old mother of two, and Piccioli, 42 and a father of three, at the Valentino showroom on Paris&amp;#039; Place Vend\u00F4me reveals a relaxed hipster kind of aesthetic: chipped black nail polish, smoky eyes, a messy bouffant, sandals, and torn jeans (her); and Converse sneakers, stubble, a busted-up T-shirt under a perfect blazer, and a jumble of string bracelets (him). Not your mother&amp;#039;s Valentino. Not Alessandra Facchinetti&amp;#039;s Valentino, either. (She designed the collection for a year after Garavani&amp;#039;s retirement, changed little, and was let go after the spring 2009 show.) Not Mr. Valentino&amp;#039;s Valentino, either. That&amp;#039;s the idea.  &amp;quot;This was a completely different collection, with a completely different vision, for a completely different woman,&amp;quot; says Piccioli, one who is quirkier than Mr. Valentino&amp;#039;s classic society matron. That said, Piccioli and Chiuri, who have collaborated side by side since they started designing accessories at Fendi (where they helped launch the Baguette) in 1989, are reverential toward Valentino&amp;#039;s unique strengths. &amp;quot;The sense of beauty he had, the joy, the love of women, the generosity to women, that is something we want to maintain,&amp;quot; Piccioli explains. &amp;quot;But in the last 10 years&amp;quot;\u2014the amount of time Chiuri and Piccioli spent under Garavani&amp;#039;s wing after he pinched them from Fendi to run his accessories division\u2014&amp;quot;women have changed a lot,&amp;quot; Chiuri says in a husky purr. &amp;quot;Time now is much too fast,&amp;quot; she adds, and Valentino has to change along with it. Whereas the original Valentino was all about Jackie O.&amp;#039;s perfect day suits, Consuelo Crespi&amp;#039;s regal chic, and Sophia Loren&amp;#039;s princess gowns, the Valentino of today has a different kind of jet set in mind. The name of Alice Dellal, the infamous party-girl heiress with a nose ring and legs that go on for days, is invoked in our conversation as just this kind of muse. &amp;quot;Her mother, Andrea, is a very sophisticated woman, and Alice is beautiful and elegant too, but she does things very differently,&amp;quot; Piccioli says. &amp;quot;Women now want to be themselves, not their mothers. And so we want to make clothes that are more special, more one of a kind, more individual. We don&amp;#039;t want to make a wardrobe.&amp;quot; The designers refer to how the models at the postshow cocktail party wore Valentino with slouchy flat boots and leggings. &amp;quot;They put their own interpretation into the clothes,&amp;quot; says Chiuri, suggesting that the customers they&amp;#039;re going after wouldn&amp;#039;t know a cocktail sheath with a matching topcoat if it sat next to them in first class.  Chiuri and Picciolo&amp;#039;s vision as brand managers for the $383 million company also looks a lot more 2010. Where Garavani was reputedly hands-off when it came to ancillary marketing or, really, anything other than his couture and ready-to-wear collections, Chiuri and Piccioli plan to oversee everything from the window design of Valentino boutiques to the company&amp;#039;s licenses (fragrance, bridalwear, ties and scarves, sunglasses, and watches). They&amp;#039;re still hands-on with the accessories division they&amp;#039;ve always run, which gave the world (and Angelina Jolie) that gorgeous braided-leather Histoire bag in 2007, still a hot seller. And they&amp;#039;ve taken over the design, marketing, and merchandising of menswear and RED Valentino, the lower-priced line. The two \u00ADdesigners, who work together with no formal division of labor, are also involved in the website redesign, right down to picking the music. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s important to communicate with your customers not just with the clothes but with everything,&amp;quot; \u00ADPiccioli says. &amp;quot;Valentino has a beautiful heritage, but what we face now is a great challenge.&amp;quot;  He&amp;#039;s not kidding. He and Chiuri face revamping a high-luxe label under brutal economic conditions and in a newfound culture of humility, in an industry that is being led more and more by fast fashion. Then there&amp;#039;s the pressure of following in the footsteps of a legend. But that was Mr. Valentino himself, joining the ovation, aglow at the duo&amp;#039;s first couture outing. He&amp;#039;s since backed well away from the company, and Chiuri and Piccioli now have only his moral support to guide them. But progeny eventually have to learn how to do things on their own. And these two are off to a promising start. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/a10612/fashion-spotlight-valentino-384469/>