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HIS SPRING 2004 collection, designer Alvin Valley was inspired
by the Dada movement and the way in which it freed him to express
himself without restrictions in his designs. For his fall 2004 collection,
shown last February in New York City, Mr Valley wanted to ‘inject
into the clothes what I had learned from these artists.’ But this
is just one small piece of the bigger picture concerning his growth
as a designer. This season, Mr Valley was more directly influenced
by his growing client list, their lifestyle and how they have become
the ‘central character’ behind his designs. The theme was hunting
and it was an appropriate starting-point for what turned out to
be his most positively and critically acclaimed collection of his
career.
Over the years, Mr Valley have been able to build
up a nice little group of socially connected fans which include
Samantha Boardman, her sister Serena and their mother Pauline Pitt;
Emilia Fanjul and her daughter Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler; Rena Sindl
and her sister Serra Kirdar; Lourdes Fanjul, Marisa Noel Brown and
many more fixtures on the New York–Palm Beach–Los Angeles–Newport,
Rhode Island social set. They came for the spectacular fit of his
signature pant and stayed for the sharply cut jackets and beautifully
draped dresses and gowns. Along the way in this journey, Mr Valley
has managed to get under their skin, heard first-hand about their
lives and stories which have helped him to create designs in his
mind based on the ‘beautiful pictures of their lives.’
The definitive movement that steered this collection
was when Mrs Fanjul ordered from him a tweed suit to take along
on her yearly hunt with Queen Sofia of Spain. While he was curious
as to why she chose him, it was very much like being nominated for
an Oscar: it’s an honour just be nominated. A few weeks later, another
client, Inès Rivero, ordered a few suits with the same purpose
of doing her hunting up at her country home in Milbrook, New York.
She told him why. ‘It’s the cut of your suits,’ she said. ‘They
are perfect for that.’
While he did do some research on the style, his
inspiration jived quite nicely with his design æsthetic, mainly
because the masculine cut in hunting gear was not that much of a
stretch for Mr Valley, a designer who’s already ‘attracted to the
masculine side of things when made for women.’
CONTINUED
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Emilia Fanjul ordered from
him a tweed suit to take along on her yearly hunt with Queen Sofia
of Spain
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