Holland may have Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” but “Paris and fashion can lay claim to another treasure, the man with the pearl necklace.”
That’s how Vogue’s Anna Wintour described Giambattista Valli on Friday night as she decorated the couturier as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, to thunderous applause, hoots and hollers from his nearest and dearest, who had gathered at the Picasso Museum for the ceremony.
Diana Widmaier Picasso went a step further, and compared Valli to her famous grandfather, Pablo Picasso.
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“Both have the same impressive ability to capture the essence of life and modernity. For this particular reason, I’m sure that my grandfather would have appreciated Giambattista’s way of disrupting the codes of fashion,” she said, prompting a chorus of “awws” and “wows” from the crowd.
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Picasso said she first met the Rome-born designer when he was designing ready-to-wear at Emanuel Ungaro. “He was able to ingeniously renew the brand and to give his creations a singular femininity that characterizes his collections today.”
Picasso noted that she had the opportunity to work with many great ceramicists that collaborated with her grandfather, and she quoted one of them: Roger Capron. “He did not believe in genius or inspiration. According to him, it was the repetition of a gesture that brought excellence. I think that this notion of work and effort, Giambattista and Anna know it well.”
She described Valli as “fiercely Italian, but France adopted him because he redefines the excellence, elegance and glamour of the Parisian woman.”
Wintour noted that Valli’s talents go far beyond fashion.
“His friends know better than anyone how tuned into the world Giamba is and how brilliantly he navigates it — the queen of Positano, people call him,” she said to a round of laughs, explaining that he “absolutely rules that city in the summer. The best restaurants, private gardens, beaches and nightclubs are all open to him and anyone in his orbit. Simply say your friends of Giamba in Positano and watch every door suddenly open.”
After the ceremony, guests could visit the current Picasso exhibition — “La Collection. Œuvres Choisies.”