That was when American journalist Matt Tyrnauer first met Valentino Garavani.
Tyrnauer was profiling the fashion designer for U.S. magazine, Vanity Fair but admits he "wasn't a fashion writer" and didn't know what to expect.
But as he settled in with Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti, his business partner of 50 years, he became enchanted by their relationship -- the heart and soul of Valentino's fashion success.
The idea of filming the spry Italian pair -- Valentino is 76, and Giammetti is five years his junior -- struck him later on when he was writing the article.
"I thought you know what, this could be a movie and it wasn't the fashion element, it was the relationship, it was the love story," Tyrnauer tells CNN at the Venice Film Festival.
This was Tyrnauer's great discovery: Prior to his Vanity Fair profile, little was known about Valentino's relationship with Giammetti.
The friendship between Valentino, fussy as royalty and a stickler for detail and the shrewd and eternally patient Giammetti dates back to 1960, a year after Valentino opened his first fashion house in Rome, Italy.
Soon after, Giammetti dropped out of university to rescue Valentino's business from bankruptcy. In 1962 Valentino made his international debut in Florence, Italy's fashion capital at the time.
"People say Valentino and Giancarlo are like a marriage and I say it's bigger than a marriage," says Tyrnauer, "But I think it's bigger than love, I think it's friendship in the platonic sense and that's the story I wanted to tell.
" ... And they happen to build an enormous fashion empire and change fashion along the way," he continues.
So, Tyrnauer floated the idea of capturing everything in a documentary to the pair. Valentino's response: " ... I say why not."
Thrilled, Tyrnauer rushed to gather a camera crew and headed for Rome.
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