Valentina (fashion designer)

Valentina Nicholaevna Sanina Schlee (c.1899, Kiev – 14 September 1989, New York City), known professionally simply as Valentina, was a Russian émigrée fashion designer and theatrical costume designer active from 1928 to the late 1950s.Obituary of Valentina Schlee, "Los Angeles Times", 18 September 1989, part I p. 19]

Valentina was studying drama in Kharkov at the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. She met financier George Schlee (d. 3 October 1964 in Paris), who would later become her husband, at the Sebastopol railway station as she was fleeing the country with her family jewels. The Schlees arrived in New York City in 1923 and became prominent members of café society during the Roaring Twenties, where Valentina "stood out for her clothes and her style. When other women were wearing short skirts, she appeared in floor-length styles; when others wore low-neck dresses, she wore covered-up styles."

Valentina opened a dress shop on Madison Avenue in 1928. Her first stage commission was costumes for Judith Anderson in 1933's "Come of Age". The costumes were better received than the play, and established her reputation as a designer for the stage. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5D7163EF936A2575AC0A96F948260 Obituary of Valentina Schlee, "New York Times"] , 15 September 1989, retrieved 3 February 2008] ] Valentina dressed such actresses of the era as Lynn Fontanne, Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson, Gertrude Lawrence, and Katharine Hepburn. Her Broadway successes included the costumes for the stage version of "The Philadelphia Story". She also dressed prominent New York society women including members of the Whitney and Vanderbilt families. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-7952583.html Obituary of Valentina Schlee from "Womens Wear Daily"] 18 September 1989, retrieved 3 February 2008]

Valentina's made-to-measure, flowing styles combined the intricate bias cut of Madeleine Vionnet and the grace of gowns by Alix Gres. "Simplicity survives the changes of fashion," she said in the late 1940s. "Women of chic are wearing now dresses they bought from me in 1936. Fit the century, forget the year." [Quoted in "> [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5D7163EF936A2575AC0A96F948260 Obituary of Valentina Schlee, "New York Times"] , 15 September 1989]

Valentina closed her fashion house in the late 1950s. She died of Parkinson's disease in 1989, aged 90. Since she and Garbo lived in the same apartment building -- and Valentina was upset by Garbo's affair with her husband George in the early 60's right before he died -- Valentina and Garbo had an elaborate schedule set up so that they would never run into each other in the lobby of their building. [Barry Paris, "Garbo", Knopf, 1995, page 452.]

References

External links

* [http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/To-Vi/Valentina.html Valentina at the Fashion Encyclopedia]