ROME, Oct 3 — One sunny day in September, Pierpaolo Piccioli, the creative director of Valentino, was sitting behind a modern light-wood desk in the brand’s headquarters on the Piazza Mignanelli, the square off the Spanish Steps, when the strains of a Frank Sinatra song drifted in through an open window from an accordion player busking on the cobblestones outside.

"I’ll do it my way” went the tune as Piccioli began to discuss that for the first time in 26 years as a member of a design partnership, he would be alone at the head of a house: Last summer, his design partner, Maria Grazia Chiuri, was tapped to become artistic director of Dior, and he was given control over Valentino. Finally, he was getting to do it his way, gearing up for his first solo show that took place yesterday in Paris.

John Williams could not have written a better soundtrack if he had tried.

The design divorce of one of the industry’s most successful teams — who were responsible for catapulting Valentino to billion-dollar status — caught fashion-watchers by surprise, sparking rumours of in-house squabbles. There was much hand-wringing of the what-is-Batman-without-Robin or Sherlock-without-Watson (or Angelina-without-Brad) kind.

But Piccioli thinks another breakup comparison is more accurate.

"Even if together the Beatles were the Beatles, I don’t think they could ever have written Imagine,” he said of the classic song, written when John Lennon was a solo artist. Of his particular separation, Piccioli said: "It was more like both of us taking our own path, to follow our own direction. Because it was the natural continuation of our journey, there was nothing traumatic about it.”

It wasn’t as if he was itching to be on his own, he said.

But "naturally in a moment of success, it is obvious that there are opportunities that can come up, and then you can choose whether to take them or not,” he said, an oblique reference to job offers that came his way. "For me it was more important remain in this place: It’s where I chose to be,” he said. "It’s more important to be here, than to be alone.”

That said, it hasn’t been business as usual at Valentino. After Chiuri’s departure in July, Piccioli shifted gears to move the brand "into something more similar to me.”

On the surface, the office that he once shared with Chiuri hasn’t changed much. He moved the desks (the two had faced each other), so he now looks onto a fireplace with a striking gold-framed 19th-century painting of a woman, a vestige of the brand founder Valentino Garavani’s occupancy of the office before he sold the company. And there are still many photographs, mostly black-and-white, of Piccioli and Chiuri at various stages of their career.

"Some photos remained, others changed, there’s no damnatio memoriae,” he said with a laugh, referring to the ancient Roman tradition of erasing the memory of a betrayer or traitor.

But the office is more congenial to what he described as his way of working, in which brainstorming is central. Collaborators describe Piccioli as roaming the fashion house freely, with the work environment in "a constant exchange.”

"For me, experimenting is fundamental, always, everything is valid, always,” Piccioli said. "I listen to everyone’s points of view, not just those who are designated to have a point of view. Then I decide.”

Rumours of ill will with his former partner were unfounded, Piccioli said. His exchanges with Chiuri used to be lively, even argumentative, the team agreed, but the discussions fuelled their creativity, producing a unique vision out of diversity.

"We worked together cultivating differences,” Piccioli said. "That was our strength. We never tried to be similar, but to bring out the various facets that made us diverse. It wasn’t the simplest thing in the world, but it made working in two more interesting.”

Now, the work will necessarily have to be "more intimate, more personal” to his style.

If Piccioli was nervous about his debut, it wasn’t evident.

"I want to arrive in Paris without thinking about how others will react, wondering whether there is a change or there isn’t,” he said, acknowledging the growing buzz. "What’s important for me is to preserve an aesthetic that I have always liked, a certain taste that was formed by a journey, and that will continue because it is tied to me, and also to Valentino and the way in which I interpret Valentino.”

Then he moved to an upper floor to view the accessories for the collection, adding to the colour palette of the bags, conferring on heels, switching the shades on some sandal straps, as his accessory designers hurriedly took notes. It was dinnertime. "Tired?” one assistant asked.

"Tired?” Piccioli responded. "I haven’t finished at all.” — The New York Times