New York vintage couture king Keni Valenti has officially set up shop in Miami. Valenti, who dressed the Olsen twins for the Met gala and counts clients like Marc Jacobs and Cavalli as regulars, just opened Miami’s first ever fashion gallery in Wynwood. His eponymous gallery's first inaugural exhibit features decades of Yves Saint Laurent clothing, accessories, photographs and lithographs from Valenti’s private collection. For instance, there's Les Smoking worn by James Franco on the cover of Candy magazine on October 2010, and what Valenti calls his showstopper: a 1959 Dior Couture evening gown from the Ballet Russes collection, which was also shot for Vogue Italia by Steven Meisel. The exhibit will be up for six weeks before Valenti switches gears with a show on Mr. Blackwell, the man behind the Worst Dressed List.
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And, in case you were worried, the gallery won't just be archives and fashion. Soon to be added to the space's offering will be lectures and workshops, which will aim to educate the public about his treasures. “It’s been a dream of mine to open up a fashion gallery, and what better place to do it than
Miami. Everything is coming to Miami now. Hermes is coming here, Louis Vuitton. I want to be in the epicenter of it all,” Valenti told us.
Keni Valenti Gallery, 2612 NW 2nd Avenue. Tuesday through Thursday, 12 to 5 p.m.; By appointment.
Photographed by Karla Garcia