"Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity" Exhibition
The Museum of the City of New York
This event has ended.
An exhibition exploring the life and career of Valentina Sanina Schlee, known professionally simply as Valentina, will open at the Museum of the City of New York on February 14, 2009—Valentine's Day. Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity is the first retrospective to focus on this legendary American designer.
Valentina arrived in New York City in 1923 with a rudimentary knowledge of sewing. In the period between the world wars, she largely invented American couture and designed the wardrobes of the rich and the famous—actresses such as Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Cornell, and Merle Oberon—as well as socialites such as the Duchess of Windsor, Mrs. William Randolph Hearst and the heiress Millicent Rogers. As a young immigrant from the Kiev region of the Ukraine, she seized the opportunities New York provided, marshaled her many talents, and reinvented herself. As Valentina, she cultivated the famous and the rich, and in doing so helped to transform American fashion.
Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity is made possible by generous lead funding from The Coby Foundation.
Media
Schedule
from February 14, 2009 to May 17, 2009