Valentino’s Alessandra Facchinetti Embroiled in Italian ‘Spy Story’ Scandal

Alessandra Facchinetti has seen her career sky rocket since being appointed as fashion house Valentino’s new creative director in 2007. However, it isn’t fashion that has seen her making headlines in Italy this week. In an unexpected twist, the style guru has found herself surrounded by sordid rumours involving Italy’s so-called ‘Spy Story,’ scandal, a purportedly far reaching scam that has implicated several of the country’s celebrities, bankers, journalists, businessmen and politicians. The investigation, which has been going on for several years, has now uncovered more than 5,000 names, and many of them extremely are high profile.

The ‘Spy Story’ scam, which has saturated the Italian tabloids, involved secret wiretaps on various people’s phonelines - an activity that apparently reaches back to as far as ten years ago. Former chief of security at Italian Telecom Giuliano Tavaroli and former 'number two' in Italy’s s SISMI military intelligence agency Marco Mancini have also been mentioned in the scandal, and are believed to have instigated the scam sometime during 1996. The exact nature of Facchinetti’s involvement in the affair is as yet unknown, and the fashion director refuses to make public comment on the investigation.

Faschinnetti, who previously held the position of women’s prêt-a-porter director at Gucci before leaving suddenly in 2005 (after what she claimed to be a disagreement with management), has held her post at Valentino since Garavani’s retirement last year. While her upwardly mobile career profile has seen her move from strength to strength ever since, this latest scandal has cast a dark shadow of scrutiny over the personal life of this sparkling jewel of the Italian Glitteratti.