Carmen Marc Valvo

Carmen Marc Valvo (born July 3, 1953) is an American designer who specializes in evening wear and high-end cocktail dresses for a line of the same name, founded in 1989. He also has an eyewear collection, a lingerie collection, a swimsuit line which is a best-seller at Victoria's Secret, and a Hamptons-inspired home collection, called CMV Home sold through QVC. He most recently launched a collection of evening bags and an exclusive Bridal Collection, in 2010. Valvo is best known for his tailored fit and form-fitting dresses.

Biography

"Valvo grew up in a traditional Spanish/Italian family in Westchester County, New York where early on he developed a passion for oil painting and made costumes for his sisters' school projects," though his passion for the arts did not materialize into a career until later on. He once admitted he didn't realize that being a designer "was a real profession."

Valvo's withdrawal from the Tents at Bryant Park Sometime in December 2008, rumors emerged that the then recent economic news would affect the upcoming New York Fashion Week in February, showing Fall 2009. Valvo, as well as Betsey Johnson and Vera Wang, were among the first and most notable designers to withdraw from showing a formal fashion show at Bryant Park, which costs upwards of $100,000, and opt for a more intimate, casual, and certainly less costly, presentation. The tent runway shows usually have an audience of 1,000 people, but even in the Spring 2009 show in September, VP of Communications Frank Pulice said there was about a 25% decrease in attendance. Pulice explains the decision: "We didn't know if we would have the audience we felt we needed to justify the cost of putting on that show – stores are cutting back on sending buyers to the shows, there's less and less press coming."

Vanessa Williams and Carmen Marc Valvo's Colorectal Cancer PSA in March 2008 In March 2008, longtime friends Award-winning singer and actress Vanessa Williams and Valvo appeared in a public service campaign about the importance of early screening for colorectal cancer, which highlighted that colorectal cancer is a preventable and curable cancer through screening. The campaign included both print and broadcast (video) announcements. The printed material appeared in fashion and lifestyle magazines while the videos were aired in March during National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

Valvo Partners with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance Carmen partnered with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance in 2011 to promote Dress in Blue Day, a colorectal cancer awareness day held the first Friday of every March, which is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. He donated a blue gown from his Black Label for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance to auction off, and designed a limited edition women's T-shirt for the event.

Personal struggle with colorectal cancer "Unbeknownst to me, two close relatives had already struggled with this condition – but we simply never talked about that kind of thing in our family. So when I began to question relatives, and it came out that I was not the first, not even the second – I had to wonder why we never talked about it."

Valvo said of the "Be Seen, Be Screened" event, it "was a wonderful way to begin a dialogue that is very important to me. Before I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer I was totally unaware of my own family history relating to the disease. With no family history on record, I was not eligible for prescreening by insurance and would have normally had to wait until the age of 50 for my first colorectal cancer screening. Had I waited my prognoses would have been much, much different."