“I know what women want. They want to be beautiful” Valentino
VALENTINO
May 11, 1932 – January 19, 2026
Fashion designer Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani is part of the exclusive pantheon of single, first name only celebrities — Elvis, Madonna, Cher, Prince, Chloe, Tiger — and is known simply as Valentino to the public and by the nickname “Vava” to his close friends and family. Fashion journalist and editor at Vanity Fair, Matt Tyrnauer, called him “The Last Emperor” in acknowledgment of his regal and elegant aesthetic. This aesthetic was formed from his early fascination with the glamorous Hollywood films of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Born into a prosperous family with a respect for design and craftsmanship, Valentino’s natural interest in fabric and construction was encouraged and honed by his fashion designer Aunt Rosa and his Uncle Giovanni, a master tailor; both schooled him in the skills of dressmaking. When Valentino turned to fashion design, after a short time studying architecture, this tutelage formed the foundation for his superior construction and understanding of fine fabrics. The basic principles of architecture – proportion and harmony to create beauty – also informed his clothing design aesthetic. From the beginning Valentino set out to create and dress women in beauty. He unabashedly loved beauty and luxury and through over fifty years of designing he held true to that North star, dressing the most elegant, admired and visible women in the world: Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Nan Kempner, Babe Paley, Grace Kelly and Princess Diana. Most notably, however, it was the revered Jacqueline Kennedy who led the way wearing his garments during her year of mourning the assassination of her husband. She later married Greek tycoon, Aristotle Onassis, in a dress selected from Valentino’s innovative and award winning 1968 “all white” fashion show. The use of a single color in an haute couture show influenced the fashion world to examine the use of monochromatic schemes and a minimalist approach to dress.
But before there was white there was red. While attending the opera “Carmen” in Barcelona, a teenaged Valentino couldn’t help but notice a woman who wore a red velvet dress and stood out from the crowd with a powerful presence and confident demeanor. This impression stayed with him and he included the color in his first show in 1960 (at the Pitti Palace, Florence, for emerging designers) and every show thereafter — including his January 2008 retirement show, which closed with all the models wearing identical red dresses. For Valentino red defined the kind of woman he designed for “independent, special and extravagant,” in his words. Red was more than his signature, it was his exclamation mark for every collection.
Valentino moved to Paris at seventeen (1949) to attend the École des Beaux – Arts et le Chambre Syndicale de le Couture Parisienne. After graduating, he failed his interview with Balenciaga but went on to become assistant to Jean Dessès for five years (his love for “La dolce vita” got him fired when he overstayed his vacation in St. Tropez). Returning to Paris he was hired by Guy LaRoche, also a former assistant to Jean Dessès.
Valentino moved back to Italy in 1959 and with financial support from his parents, opened his own Maison in 1960. In that same year he met Giancarlo Giammetti and the two quickly became personal and business partners. Though the two would eventually discontinue their intimate relationship, they remained committed lifelong partners. Giammetti grew the Maison into an international lifestyle brand which freed Valentino to design his opulent, romantic gowns for his international clientele, who clamored for his elegant, sensational and delicate gowns.
Valentino’s personal life mirrored his creations in luxury, elegance, opulence and sophistication. His love of beauty and extravagance included a 152 – foot yacht (christened by Sophia Loren), homes in London, Rome, New York, Paris (once the home of Louise de La Villière, mistress to Louis XIV), Spain and Gstaad (where he was known to be a fast skier) all filled with art and collected treasures. Some of his excesses could be amusing such as his devotion to his six pug dogs – Molly, Milton, Monty, Margot, Maggie and Maude, who traveled with him everywhere. Matt Tyrnauer reported that it required three buses just to get to the airport; one for Valentino, partner and staff, another for luggage and the third for the pugs! Details in his personal life were as important as the details on his ornate gowns. Staff ironed his sheets twice each day — the second time while on the bed itself! Noting his lavish lifestyle, John Fairchild, publisher and editor of Women’s Wear Daily, described Valentino and Giammetti as “the kings of high living.”
Valentino preserved a link to a romantic and gilded past that was subsumed by a culture evolving towards an ever more casual and coarser attitude. He simply ignored this movement dismissing the style of the 1970’s as “too tight” and that of the 1980’s as “too vulgar.” The “grunge” look did not even warrant a comment. He stayed loyal to his vision of beauty, creating for the fading but beautifully dreamy Italian “dolce vita” and the exciting, glamorous “jet-set” world, recognizing that beauty is always its own style and always in fashion.
