Giancarlo Giammetti — the longtime partner of Valentino Garavani — stepped out from behind the fashion designer’s shadow this week to launch a book of more than 57,000 personal photos, called “Private.”
“It’s very nice to see Valentino walking behind Giancarlo, holding his coat,” joked Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter at the Monkey Bar lunch he hosted Wednesday for the book, which one attendee noted was so heavy it would “give guests hernias taking it home.”
“I’m not used to being in the spotlight,” Giammetti said. “I am used to being the man behind. I’m not a photographer — this is a scrapbook. We have a wonderful life that I wanted to remember.”
Spotted at the VF shindig: Tory Burch, Carolina Herrera, Larry Gagosian, Lauren Santo Domingo, Anderson Cooper, Barbara Walters and Vito Schnabel.
Giammetti also celebrated this week with a Plaza signing of the $250 tome from publisher Assouline, and a fete at Sant Ambroeus’ yet-to-open Soho branch, where society spinmeister Marjorie “Mad Marj” Gubelmann DJ’ed.