Valentino: Daphne Guinnes, Anna Wintour and more

Some photos from the luncheon to honor Valentino for Artistry for Fashion, last week in New York. Gorgeous Daphne Guinnesss, as always looking amazing, Susan Tabak, Nina Garcia, Anna Wintour, Michelle Harper, Stefano Tonchi, Hamish Bowles, Diane Von Furstenberg, Iris Apfel, everyone in the fashion industry was there. Also here, you can read the letter Karl Lagerfeld wrote to his dear friend Valentino. 

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Valentino with Yaz Hernandez

Carlos Couturier, Yaz Hernandez and Gabriel Rivera

Liliana Dominguez with Carlos Couturier

Melania Trump with Iris Apfel

Hamish Bowles with Yaz Hernandez

Stefano Tonchi with Hamish Bowles

Eddie Borgo

Simon Doonan

Susan Tabak

The It Girl Michelle Harper , here with Diane Von Furstenberg.

Tamara Mellon

Nina Garcia wearing cheetah print.

LETTER FROM KARL LAGERFELD TO VALENTINO

FOR VALENTINO FIT LUNCHEON FROM KARL LAGERFELD

I think there is nobody in the audience who knows Valentino for so many years as I do.

We met when we were young in Paris.  He then worked at Jean Dessés and I was an assistant at Pierre Balmain. A common friend had introduced us but we met most of the time in the famous Cafe de Flore in the St. Germain de Pres.

Valentino never changed.  He had a dream then and he realized his dream and now as he has a little more time he continues to live his dream "full time".   I think few people worked as hard as he did to achieve his dreams and his vision of life.  He wanted to dress the most beautiful and most elegant women in the world---- and he dressed them all.

Beauty was the music guide of his great talent.  Women loved him for that all over the world.  For him the sense of beauty is more important then the essence of fashion.  He had his idea how a woman should look and was never influenced by a simple trend or a short lived fashion moment.

What he did was always 100%Valentino and that made his high success all over the world.  Also his couture clothes were beautifully made and few people today know what he knows about the craftsmanship of that form of art.

If there should be one "Grand Couturier" in Italy it will only and forever be him.

Voltaire said: It is not enough to conquer, one must also know how to seduce" He knew and knows both to perfection.

Your old friend

Karl

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