“Draped for dramatic effect and freedom of gesture, the cut of Valentina’s clothing effectively anticipated the wearer’s movement across the stage of life.  Be it costume or private client couture, Valentina challenged the demarcation between theatricality and fashion–for her, they were one and the same.” -Phyllis Magidson in Threads Magazine, Aug/Sept 10, Issue 150

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With an introduction like that, I was immediately drawn into the article on Valentina by Claire B. Shaeffer in the current issue of Threads Magazine.  Designing for the stage as well as elite socialites, Valentina had a masterful way of creating clothes that enhanced the body or minimized its shortcomings.  Growing up in the Ukraine, she had her beginnings as a dancer before emigrating to New York.  She pursued acting and modeling alongside of designing fashion and costume fom the 20′s to 50′s, and is now remembered as one of America’s great couturiers.

Valentina modeling one of her silk jersey dresses

Valentina believed that she was her own best model. She often posed in her designs for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar–she was one of famed photographer Horst P. Horst’s favorite subjects–and held legendary one-woman fashion shows, in which she modeled all the clothes in the collection while her husband entertained champagne-sipping clients and editors during costume changes.

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“Valentina believed a dress should be wearable for as many years as it physically survives.” -Kohle Yohannan, design historian and author of Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity.

“Simplicity survives the changes of fashion,” Valentina said in the late 1940s. “Women of chic are wearing now dresses they bought from me in 1936. Fit the century, forget the year.”

This is a great video by Kohle Yohannan about the life of Valentina:

This article on Valentina in conjunction with a review of a recent retrospective at the Museum of the City of New York is quite informative about the designer’s life and work.

Valentina was such an interesting figure in the history of couture; I would love to see some of her designs in person one day, and alas, that retrospective is over.