it's valentino day!

Valentino Spilled Red Wine All Over Anne Hathaway’s White Dress

The color palette of the dresses at this week’s premiere of Valentino: The Last Emperor was disappointingly neutral, but by night’s end, at least one lucky lady walked away from the Gilt Groupe–and–Quintessentially–sponsored after-party at the Oak Room wearing her very own original Valentino Red. As the star-packed dinner emptied out, we ran into Anne Hathaway, whose borrowed white, one-shouldered Valentino jersey dress was covered in Pollack-esque splatters of red wine. “It was a very spontaneous decorative choice,” she said, laughing. “Oh, but wait till you see the back!” Sure enough, the entire bottom half of the dress was soaked through, making it apparent that Hathaway had been sitting gamely in a pool of wine for most of the night.

“Mr. Valentino got up to say hello to a friend of mine that he knew, and red wine just went flying all over me,” said Hathaway. “And it was my glass! I guess that’s what I get for wearing white after Labor Day.” Unscathed were tablemates Gwyneth Paltrow (black), Madonna (black), and Claire Danes (light mint green, but protected by the radiant energy of new fiancé Hugh Dancy). On the bright side, Hathaway gets to keep the dress: “The first thing I told him was, ‘You’re not getting it back.’ ” Hathaway wasn’t sure any amount of dry cleaning could undo the damage, but in the meantime, she’d chosen to be happy with her new look. “I thought about the best fashion advice my grandmother ever gave me, which was ‘Start a trend.’ So I’ve decided I’m starting the trend of getting red wine spilled all over you by an international fashion icon.”

Valentino Spilled Red Wine All Over Anne Hathaway’s White Dress