"We have pictures that were never meant to be seen by anyone except Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti for their own albums and memories, " says Kinmonth.

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He and Giammetti dutifully sampled the fare served by off-duty models in crisp white shirts and skinny black ties, but it was more an attitude of sociability than nutrition.

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Mr. Giammetti even paused to take a photograph with his iPhone of a woman with a bob identical to Anna Wintour's, and then shared it with his dinner partners, the designer Diane von Furstenberg and the agent Bryan Lourd from the Creative Artist Agency.

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