“My home, Australia, is witnessing the worst bushfires in history. “My country is on fire,” she starts when asked how 2020 is looking, so far. Leena Al Ghouti in Rome at the launch of Born in Roma. Inclusivity is one of my primary values and to collaborate means to practice a language that includes all.” Being inclusive maintaining a reverie of the past while bringing it to present times. Creative director of the Born in Roma campaign and bottle designs, Pierpaolo Piccioli, explains that creation starts with “the dream he wants to deliver.” Of his new perfumes, he shares that they are fragrances for “a community where values are shared, not surfaces. The new perfume Born in Rome signifies a mood, and those who adopt it have one foot seeped in tradition and culture, and the other firmly in the now. Ten minutes later I realized that he was Pierpaolo Piccioli himself! This is what I like about Valentino, even if the dresses and the shows are spectacular, they are all sweet people I always enjoy working with.” We had a nice chat and he told me which floor to go to. When I arrived at the headquarters, I saw this gentle guy smoking a cigarette in front of the building. I remember the first time I met Pierpaolo, it was my first fashion week. “They were one of the first maisons to have me on a catwalk.

“I have a special relationship with Valentino,” Akech says.

The heroes of the new maison Valentino perfume, Born in Roma, are Australian-South Sudanese model Adut Akech and Palestinian-Dutch model and Vogue Man Arabia’s first cover star, Anwar Hadid. The sun shone down on the Eternal City Thursday where editors and influencers had descended for an enchanting treasure hunt in Rome. Adut Akech and Anwar Hadid are the stars of the new Valentino Born in Roma perfume.

Always in My Heart by Donna Valentino