Valentino Appoints New Designers, Doesn’t Tell Facchinetti

After the spring 2009 Valentino show in Paris on Friday, company CEO Stefano Sassi told reporters it was designer Alessandra Facchinetti's last collection for the house. Over the weekend the company confirmed Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, who have designed accessories for Valentino for ages, will take over as creative directors. However, Facchinetti wrote in a public e-mail the media heard of her dismissal before she did:

"It was with deep regret that I learnt from the press that I would no longer be working with Valentino…

"This news came as a great surprise since the company's top management has not yet seen fit to inform me. I would like to thank Valentino s.p.a. for showing their appreciation of my 'creative contribution and my sophisticated talent' although I deeply regret the fact that this talent and contribution do not seem to have been adequately acknowledged."

So what went wrong? To start, neither Valentino nor his partner, honorary president Giancarlo Giammetti, cared for her. Vava himself expressed this to reporters back in January, but echoes the sentiment in today's British Vogue: "[Chiuri and Piccioli] always demonstrated an enormous respect and love for my work. There is an existing archive with thousands of dresses where they can draw and take inspiration from to create a Valentino product that is relevant today. It is a shame that their predecessor didn't feel this need." Giammetti said, "To pretend to transform and revolutionise the Valentino style is a utopia which is a loss from the start … Pier Paolo and Maria Grazia are company oriented people and it is right to give them a chance to bring forward a style, which alongside Valentino, they have developed."

We hope Alessandra got a good severance package when the door slammed her ass on the way out.