Valentino Garavani Designs Costumes for Vienna’s New Year Show

DALLAS & MILAN, Dec 23, 2009 / FW/ — Valentino Garavani might have retired from designing his famed label “Valentino” but he continues to wield his design prowess, the latest being creating 16 extraordinary costumes for the ballet that will be performed in Vienna on New Year’s Day.

A tradition that dates back from 1939, Vienna’s New York Concert takes place at the exquisite hall of the Musikverein Wien and considered “the” concert par excellence that marks the beginning of the next year.

Shown live on TV in more than 50 countries, it is also one of the biggest television and music events in the world with an expected audience of over one billion.

“A challenge, because it was really difficult to combine couture and the dancers’ need for movement… but I am very happy about the outcome, and extremely pleased that a billion people will be able to witness a different side of my work”, Valentino Garavani commented about this project.

For Valentino, this marks a return to the greatest theatre, one of his leading passions, a source of inspiration for his work from the very beginning.

A concert-show performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker orchestra – lead this year by French director Georges Prêtre, this year’s show will star Eleonora Abbagnato and Nicolas Le Riche, etoiles of the Opera National de Paris.

The pair will dance a polka an a valzer by Johann Strauss with the dancers of Vienna’s State Opera with the choreography of Renato Zanella.

For Eleonora Abbagnato and her ballerinas, Valentino has created 8 dresses of ethereal, layered veils in pink, blue pearl and Valentino red, covered with blooms of delicate roses, one of the couturier’s recurring themes. For Nicholas Le Riche and his fellow male dancers, he has designed a classic black tailcoat, with black tights and a white shirt.

[MARI DAVIS]