Valentino (fashion designer)

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani (Italian: [valenˈtiːno ɡaraˈvaːni]; 11 May 1932 – 19 January 2026), known mononymously as Valentino, was an Italian fashion designer who founded Valentino S.p.A., a luxury fashion house, in 1960 and served as its creative director until 2007. A flamboyant designer noted for his retro pieces and celebrity collaborations, he is regarded as one of the preeminent figures in haute couture.

Born in Voghera, Valentino apprenticed in fashion design at a young age before moving to Paris to continue his studies. After attending the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the École de la Chambre Syndicale, he began his career at Jean Dessès and Guy Laroche, later returning to Rome to work under Emilio Schuberth and Vincenzo Ferdinandi. He had opened his own fashion house on Via Condotti in 1960, achieving international recognition during the mid‑1960s. The Valentino brand continued to establish itself as a leading force in high fashion throughout the 1970s and 1980s, at one point becoming the best-selling Italian fashion export. He was the first Italian designer to feature on Parisian haute couture catwalks. His work further established itself as a staple of celebrity culture during the 1990s.

Valentino and his partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, sold the company to HdP Group for US$300 million in 1998. He presented his final haute couture show in 2008, having stepped down as creative director the previous year. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1986 and a Knight of the Order of Merit for Labour in 1996, and was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honour and a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, where he received the Medal of the City of Paris.

Early life and education

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born on 11 May 1932 in Voghera, in the region of Lombardy, to Mauro Garavani and Teresa de Biaggi. His mother named him after Rudolph Valentino, a matinée idol of the 1920s. He developed an interest in fashion while still at primary school in Voghera, apprenticing under his aunt Rosa and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo, an aunt of the artist Aldo Giorgini. He later moved to Paris to pursue this interest with the support of his parents, where he studied at the Beaux-Arts and the École de la Chambre Syndicale, aged 18.

Career

Beginnings in Paris and return to Italy (1951–1959)

Valentino secured a position with Jean Dessès for an apprenticeship in Paris when 19, having first joined Jacques Fath, followed by Balenciaga and Dior. While an apprentice with Dessès, he assisted Countess Jacqueline de Ribes by sketching her dress ideas.

After five years, Valentino departed following an incident during an extended holiday in Saint-Tropez. He joined his friend Guy Laroche in 1956. After discussions with his parents, he opted to return to Italy and established himself in Rome in 1959, first as a pupil of Emilio Schuberth and then as a collaborator in Vincenzo Ferdinandi's atelier, prior to opening his own fashion house.

Founding of Valentino (1960–1961)

In 1960, Valentino left Paris and opened a fashion house in Rome on the fashionable Via Condotti, supported by his father and a business associate. More than a simple atelier, his father said the premises resembled a maison de haute couture (lit. 'house of haute couture'); the operation was notably grand, with models flown in from Paris for his debut show. Valentino soon became known for his red dresses, in the vivid shade that the fashion industry remembered as Rosso Valentino.

On 31 July 1960, Valentino met Giancarlo Giammetti at the Café de Paris on the Via Veneto in Rome. Giammetti, one of three children, was in his second year of architecture school and living with his parents in the haut bourgeois Parioli district. That day, he gave Valentino a lift home in his Fiat, beginning a friendship that soon developed into a long‑lasting partnership. Giammetti left for a holiday in Capri the following day and, by coincidence, Valentino was also travelling there; they met again on the island 10 days later. Shortly afterwards, Giammetti abandoned his university studies to become Valentino's business partner and life partner. When he joined the enterprise, the financial situation of Valentino's atelier was precarious: within a year, Valentino's excessive expenditure led his father's associate to withdraw from the business, leaving him close to bankruptcy. In 1961, Elizabeth Taylor, who was in Rome for the filming of Cleopatra, chose Valentino's white haute couture column for the premiere of Spartacus.

Breakthrough in Florence (1962–1969)

Valentino's international debut took place in 1962 in Florence, then the Italian fashion capital. Former first lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy, had seen Gloria Schiff—the twin sister of the Rome-based fashion editor of American Vogue and Valentino's friend Consuelo Crespi—wearing a two-piece ensemble in black organza at a gathering in 1964. It made such an impression that Kennedy contacted Schiff to learn the name of the ensemble's designer: Valentino. In September 1964, Valentino was in the United States to present a collection of his work at a charity ball at the Waldorf-Astoria New York. Kennedy wanted to view the collection but could not attend the event, so Valentino decided to send a model, sales representative, and a selection of key pieces from his collection to Kennedy's apartment on Fifth Avenue. Kennedy ordered six of his haute couture dresses, all in black-and-white, and wore them during her year of mourning following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. From then on, she became a devoted client and friend of Valentino. Valentino later designed the white gown worn by Kennedy at her wedding to Greek business magnate Aristotle Onassis. In 1966, he moved his shows from Florence to Rome, where the following year he produced an all-white collection that became famous for the "V" logo he designed. His all-white couture collection of 1968 set him "solidly in the firmature of Italian design", described by Vogue as "the talk of Europe". He was the first Italian designer to feature in the Paris haute couture scene.

Switch to retro styles and international fame (1970–1979)

Throughout the 1970s, Valentino's womenswear for both couture and ready-to-wear generally followed the trends of the time, opening the decade with an emphasis on midi-skirts worn over miniskirts; fitted, knee-high boots; trousers; and foreign looks. In 1971, he paired more brightly colored midis and knee-length skirts with that year's vogue for hot pants, also continuing to show trousers like culottes and knickers with the gently flared standard trouser of the time. He was noted for his tailored clothes. The 1940s revival was his focus for a time, and Valentino showed platform shoes, padded shoulders, and knee-length skirts, all along with occasional forays into 1930s and 1950s styles, kept modern by an emphasis on pants.

In 1972, he started the year favoring trousers but ended it showing only skirts, including being one of the only designers to present day dresses in a period dominated by separates. He endorsed the favored full sleeves and layering that were seen on many runways and continued to move away from his trademark monotone or bicolor palette—often cream or red. A knee-length, square-shouldered 1940s revival was prevalent again in 1973, continuing with bright prints, including a Bakst influence. During this era, his evening styles were often ruffled and sometimes had asymmetric hems, other times a single, barely discernible letter on a belt or scarf.

The mid-1970s move toward fuller peasant silhouettes was seen in Valentino's work somewhat—dirndl skirts, off-the-shoulder flounces, petticoats, blousons, shawls, ponchos, and layering—but he deemphasized the look's characteristic boots and was sometimes criticized for including styles that were too heavily constructed and stiff in this period of minimal construction and flowing shapes, as well as for emphasizing conspicuous-consumption wealth projection during the more egalitarian atmosphere of the time. He then returned to his serviceable presentation of monochrome and bicolor garment groupings.