Valentino Garavani, the designer central to pioneering Italian glamour with his eponymous fashion house, has died aged 93.
“Valentino Garavani passed away today at his Roman residence, surrounded by his loved ones,” his foundation said on Instagram on Monday. “Valentino Garavani was not only a constant guide and inspiration for all of us, but a true source of light, creativity and vision,” it added.
The designer’s body will lie in state at the foundation’s headquarters in Rome on Wednesday and Thursday, with his funeral due to take place in the Italian capital on Friday.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, paid tribute, posting on X: “Valentino, undisputed master of style and elegance and eternal symbol of Italian high fashion. Today Italy loses a legend, but his legacy will continue to inspire generations. Thank you for everything.”
Known simply as Valentino, the designer was renowned for his opulent and elegant take on fashion that attracted famous fans. He founded his house in 1959 and could soon count Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor among his devotees. He designed the clothes worn by Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film La Notte in 1961, while Jackie Kennedy wore his clothes for several years in the 1960s. In 1966, she urged him to “live 100 years!” She went on to marry Aristotle Onassis in 1968, wearing a Valentino wedding dress.
The red dress was Valentino’s signature item, part of his aesthetic from the very start. His first collection featured a red tulle dress called the Fiesta. The shade of red that he has used – halfway between crimson and poppy – is now so well known that it is officially recognised by the colour authority Pantone.
Valentino was at the top of the fashion game for more than 45 years – retiring in 2007, after a final haute couture show where every model wore a red dress. During his career he was on speed dial to an increasingly A-list coterie of women: models including Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer were often seen wearing his clothes off the catwalk, while film stars such as Julia Roberts, Laura Linney and Penélope Cruz wore his designs on the red carpet. Diana, Princess of Wales, wore his designs in the years after her divorce.
Arguably, glamour was there from the start. The designer was born in 1932, in Voghera, a town near Milan, and named after the Italian actor Rudolph Valentino by his mother. Childhood experiences were formative to his future career. He later said his love of red came from a visit to the opera, watching Carmen. “All the women in the boxes were mostly dressed in red, and they leaned forward like geraniums on balconies, and the seats and drapes were red too … I realised that after black and white, there was no finer colour,” he said.
Valentino was an apprentice to the designers Jean Dessès, Christian Dior and Guy Laroche, moving to Paris as a young man. A year after he began his own label at 27, with financial backing from his family, he met Giancarlo Giammetti, who became his romantic partner and business partner – initially saving the business from bankruptcy. An all-white collection in 1962 brought him to the attention of the fashion world.
Although their romantic relationship ended in 1972, Giammetti and Valentino ensured the label became known throughout the world. In 1998, they sold the company to HdP, an Italian conglomerate, for about $300m. It is now owned by the Qatari investment fund Mayhoola, while Kering holds a 30% stake.
If the label dressed the rich and beautiful, Valentino and Giammetti dressed the part and lived the life too. Valentino was always impeccably dressed in a suit, with a deep suntan (interviewing the designer for the Observer in 2012, Decca Aitkenhead described his complexion as “dipped upside down in lacquer”). The 2008 film Valentino: The Last Emperor documented the duo’s jetset lifestyle – showcasing private jets, five homes, yachts and six pampered pugs, as well as the preparation of the designer’s final collection.
Valentino’s life was not without controversy. In the interview with Aitkenhead, he complained about the idea of bringing models of different sizes to the catwalk and the fact that theatregoers were becoming too casual. He recalled his horror at seeing a fellow audience member dressed in a T-shirt: “No, oh my gosh. [It was] not very clean. And a Bermuda short and a flip-flop on the foot.”
His ideas on female beauty were also controversial. He told RTL television in 2007: “When I see somebody and unfortunately she’s relaxed and running around in jogging trousers and without any makeup … I feel very sorry. For me, woman is like a beautiful, beautiful flower bouquet. She has always to be sensational, always to please, always to be perfect, always to please the husband, the lover, everybody. Because we are born to show ourselves always at our best.”
In 2007, Alessandra Facchinetti was appointed creative director of the house after the retirement of Valentino. Just 12 months later she was dismissed and replaced by Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri. Following the departure of Grazia Chiuri in 2016, Piccioli was named as sole creative director. He held the role until 2024 when it was announced that the former Gucci designer Alessandro Michele was taking over.
