A

VALENTINA 1904-1989

FASHION DESIGNER

An Architect of Dress

A leading member of haute couture, Valentina considered herself an aichitect of dress. Claiming inspitation from Grecian architecture, she used fabrics to accentuate their textures, shadows, and high-lights in order to create the desired architectural effect. "Color," she once explained, "should never be obvious, static, or flat" but rather should move and flow. Commentators agreed that she achieved dramatic effects in her gowns without, as one put it, "resorting to extreme cuts."

Early Life

She was born Valentina Sanina in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1904 to a wealthy family. Her education at the school of dramatic arts in Kiev was interrupted by the Russian Revolution in 1917, in which her mother and brother were killed. At fifteen she fled alone to the Crimean peninsula, carrying only the family's jewels. Two years later she married and immigrated to Athens, where the couple struggled to survive. In 1923 she moved to New York City, where she began designing clothes.

Establishing a Name

After a series of efforts in different fashion salons, the husband-and-wife team opened Valentina Gowns, Inc., in 1928 and soon began to make a profit. Valentina's dresses were complicated and difficult to reproduce. She believed that each dress should be individual and suited perfectly to one person. She regularly traveled to Paris to study the new fashions. She would then bring her designs back to New York, where she would fashion originals for her high-paying customers.

Costuming and the Theater

In the 1930s Valentina began designing costumes for the stage, which she had loved since her days in Kiev, and Hollywood. In 1933 she designed costumes for Judith Anderson for the play Coming of Age, which established her as a costume designer. By 1936, when she did Lynn Fontanne's clothes for the role of a White Russian pseudocountess in the play Idiot's Delight'; the designer was well known enough for columnists to recognize her work. Valentina also did stage costumes for Helen Hayes, Mary Martin, and Vera Zorina as well as Clifton Webb's dressing gowns and pajamas for the play The Man Who Came to Dinner. Her Hollywood following included Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, and Greta Garbo.

The Art of Fashion

Valentina combined her belief in the individuality of every woman with her passion for the stage. "On-stage or off," she wrote, "it is essential to know a woman's physical and psychological equipment as well as … she knows it herself, in order to create a dress that will have meaning in relation to her as a woman.… Every dress should identify a personal style through the elements of personality which it accentuates. Otherwise, it cannot be called a piece of art." She was particularly known for using hoods, large fur hats, dolman sleeves, pleated skirts and blouses, and scarf handkerchiefs.