Joelle Diderich, Paris: Italian designer Valentino bid adieu to fashion with a star-studded haute couture show in Paris on Wednesday, ending a 45-year career that saw him dressing luminaries from Jacqueline Kennedy to Julia Roberts.

Source: AP/Thibault Camus

Celebrities, socialites and fashion editors gave the 75-year-old couturier a rousing standing ovation as a smiling Valentino took his bow, flanked by dozens of models dressed in identical gowns in his trademark shade of red.

"I am extremely happy," he told reporters backstage. "That is why I am not emotional, because I feel very strong and to have this demonstration of affection, of love, of such generosity, I really am on cloud nine!" Actresses Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu joined supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Eva Herzigova at a tent in the Rodin Museum to watch a parade of the stunning evening gowns that have made Valentino king of the red carpet.

"I'm sad to see it end," Thurman said. Dresses were draped, shirred and flounced in liquid silk and featherlight organdy. White goddess gowns were set off by sparkling rhinestones, while day suits came in sherbet shades of lemon, almond and apricot.

It was an object lesson in style from the designer who has never strayed from his mantra: Keep a woman looking her best. Seamstresses from Valentino's couture workshop in Rome, dressed in white laboratory coats, wiped away tears as decades of close collaboration came to an end.