Fashion for GENERATIONS
Sylvie Utudjian travelled to Venice for Valentino’s Haute Couture show, which heralded a new generation of catwalk spectacle. At the Utudjian house, they also brought the next generation onboard and took daughter Victoria with them across the Canale Grande. L’officiel Monaco accompanied the fashion enthusiast and published photos from the family album.
Sylvie Utudjian, also known as Influencer (@uberchique), is not only a Breitling Ambassador, but also a lover of Haute Couture and an Austrian member of the international fashion parade that forms around the Fashion Weeks every year. This time she took L’officiel Monaco with her to Venice for her exclusive invitation to the Valentino Haute Couture Days and had a conversation with us during the travel. Her daughter Victoria was also present. She contributes to the preservation of the fashion tradition in Sylvie’s family as well; after all, her grandmother, who is a L’officiel reader, speaks for the first time. “My first real dress, which I received from my mother for my high school graduation, was a white silk shantung dress from Dolce&gabbana. It is very Jacky O and from Dolce’s best era, their Heydays. I still own the dress and still love wearing it. A timeless classic, masterfully crafted”, Sylvie explains the beginning of her passion for collecting. Also in anticipation of the Valentino Haute Couture show, the influencer tells us that it’s really more about the fashion per se, the craftsmanship, and the intellectual standards in the house of Valentino than about the exclusive Haute
Couture club that you automatically join when you attend the shows. This is because Haute Couture is a very different genre from prêt-à-porter, which tends to be aimed at a wider audience, whereas haute couture is aimed at a very few, very select buyers. Unlike usual, the Valentino show did not take place at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild in Paris, but at the Gaggiandre de l’arsenal in Venice, where the catwalk floated over the water and Cosima melancholically proclaimed the start of Valentino’s “post Corona” rebirth at the golden hour of the evening sun.
llustrious circle
Not the usual paparazzi, not the usual celebrities, not the “fashion family” like Lauren Santo Domingo, the Brandolinis or Olivia Palermo were there, among a well-chosen circle of private clients from all over the world, who celebrated Piccioli’s creations in a way that had never been seen before. “You got goosebumps, the scenery was surreal, almost like an art installation. I love this intellectual level of Valentino. It’s very rare to feel that time spirit in fashion”, says Sylvie, sprinting from one event to another on Rockstud heels as if they were her usual Chanel ballerinas, which she likes to wear during prêt-à-porter days. “I look forward to the day when I am just a guest and don’t have to see everything through my phone. The stress of a fashion week is not to be neglected! That may sound pretentious now, but it shouldn’t be, because after all, I also work, I have many business appointments, after all, the industry meets here. Of course, another perk about attending fashion weeks is that I get to catch-up with old friends that I normally wouldn’t see as often… like a dear friend whom I met as a young student during my years at “mcgill University”, Imran Amed, founder and creator of BOF. There are numerous accompanying events, such as a dinner of a prestigious e-commerce platform, which is highly connected to the house of Valentino and often presents exclusive collaborations, as was the case recently at Art Basel. Of course, I’m allowed to come to these events with friends or, this time, my daughter. Of course, it makes a mother’s heart beat faster when her daughter wears the red dress to her first Valentino show that I wore to my first Valentino haute couture show four years ago. Even though the days flew by like the blink of an eye and Sylvie Utudjian barely had time to eat - which happens all the time during fashion week - it was a magical event that would bring Sylvie’s
daughter even closer to the fashion world. “She had already done various internships in the fashion world and also wants to work in the fashion industry, but on a business level when she finishes her studies”, says the proud mother.
Ready for the fashion show
This time Sylvie travelled quite light in comparison and only had three suitcases with her, all exclusively from Valentino, only the handbags come from the house of Hermès.” - Which, by the way, she sees as a structured investment. “I’m not an It-bag buyer, I’m more classically inclined. Hermès bags are, in a way, a family tradition in our house; I inherited my “Croco Birkin” from my mother and will hopefully be able to pass it on to my daughters in good condition.” Sylvie Utudjian used to travel with a lot more luggage and especially a lot of jewellery. However, after leaving her diamond studs on the nightstand in
“I look forward to the day when I am just a guest and don’t have to see everything through my phone.” Sylvie Utudjian
a New York hotel during a trip and putting her stud earrings in the wastepaper basket after housekeeping was done with her room, she has learned. “It taught me to put my jewellery in the safe even after a very late night and, most importantly, to only take what I really need.” Once the entire household was packed, now the selection is very planned - just how one travels as an Influencer in 2021. Brand collaborations are often shot during her trip, rather than just documenting fashion weeks. “Planning is everything and you have to use the right time frame.” During the Valentino haute couture show, Sylvie had a professional hair and make-up artist who made her “camera-ready”, however, she doesn’t always have that much time when travelling during the fashion spectacle. A spectacle that her daughter was now able to experience live in Venice and will certainly be perfected in the future. Because: After the show is before the show. And in the Utudjian house, the family honour is at stake.