The French capital is buzzing with excitement over the possibility that Italian fashion icon Valentino will, for first time since retiring, attend the presentation of a Haute Couture collection produced by the maison he created.
It was a year ago that Valentino closed this the Paris Fashion Week with his final women's haute couture collection and ended an era in the history of fashion.
''If I decide to attend it will only be to lend my support to two people I love and who were close to me for many years,'' Valentino said on Tuesday, a day before the presentation.
The two people he referred to are Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, who after heading the maison's division for accessories took over responsibility for artistic design from Valentino's successor Alessandra Facchinetti.
Facchinetti, 36, stepped down last October after her pret-a-porter spring/summer collection disappointed the maison's owners and, reportedly, Valentino himself.
According to rumors here in Paris, after Facchinetti left Valentino returned to his maison to act as a consultant for Chiuri and Piccioli.
However, Valentino categorically denied this on Tuesday and said ''I have not had any direct contact with the creative directors nor have I had anything to do with the collections they have designed. In fact, I have not seen them''.
Rumors that he had been lending a hand to his protegees were, in Valentino's words, ''without foundation and in bad taste on the eve of their debut''.
Valentino did not attend when Facchinetti presented her first collection last March but sent his long-time partner Giancarlo Giammetti.
Although the collection won Giammetti's praises, already in July doubts arose over Facchinetti's future at Valentino, who was then sacked after presenting her second Valentino collection in October.
Valentino, 76, retired after an extraordinary 45-year career dressing the world's most beautiful and famous women.
Valentino, whose full name is Valentino Garavani, was born in the industrial town of Voghera north of Milan on May 11, 1932.
At 17 he moved to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and apprenticed with Jean Desses and Guy Laroche before opening an atelier in Rome.
He quickly earned a celebrity following and joined forces with Giannetti, at the time an architecture student, who became his lifelong companion as well as the financial brain behind his world-wide expansion.
Valentino's most famous clients - often opting for trademark red creations - have included Princess Grace of Monaco, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren.
Jacqueline Kennedy wore Valentino when she married Aristotle Onassis in 1968.
The Valentino Fashion Group was acquired in June 2007 by private equity fund Permira. Its new management opted for a team of young and commercially minded designers, each responsible for a specific sector, rather than seeking a single person to replace Valentino's creative vision.
Facchinetti was the first of the new team to leave Valentino and she has now been joined by Ferruccio Pozzoni, who earlier this month stepped down as the maison's chief designer for men's wear.
