Fashion designer Valentino dies at 93

Fashion designer Valentino Garavani — known around the world simply as Valentino — passed away on Monday in Rome at the age of 93, “surrounded by his loved ones,” according to the foundation that bears his name. Valentino, one of those rare figures who can be recognized by just a first name, and even more uniquely associated with a color — red — was the other great king of Italian fashion on the global stage, alongside Giorgio Armani, who passed away last year.

The designer’s lying in state will be held at the PM23 cultural space in central Rome, near the Spanish Steps, a venue created by Valentino himself and his longtime partner and business associate, Giancarlo Giammetti. The viewing will be open from Wednesday until Thursday, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The funeral will take place on Friday at 11:00 a.m. at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome.

One of the first reactions came from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who summed up the nation’s sentiment: “Valentino, the undisputed master of style and elegance, and the eternal symbol of Italian haute couture. Today, Italy loses a legend, but his legacy will continue to inspire generations. Thank you for everything.”

The celebrated designer, who sold his brand in 1998 but retained his executive roles and retired definitively in 2007, chose red as the color of his life as a child in Barcelona. One night at the opera, he was fascinated by the elegant women dressed in red around him. Born in Voghera, a town between Milan and Genoa, in 1932, his given name was actually Ludovico Clemente Garavani; Valentino was the name he chose for the fashion house he founded in Rome in 1959.

He trained in Paris, where he moved in 1949 at just 17 years old, driven by a clear vocation for fashion and with the support of his mother, who always believed in him and paid for his journey. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and later learned the craft in the couture ateliers of Jean Dèsses and Guy Laroche. Upon returning to Italy, he quickly rose to fame after his first runway show in 1962 at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, which was a resounding success. Thus began a career marked by dazzling international acclaim.

In 1960, on a sidewalk café along Via Veneto, he had the encounter that would define both his life and his career: meeting Giancarlo Giammetti. They became partners — Valentino providing the creativity, Giammetti, working more quietly, the business vision. Their romantic relationship lasted 12 years and was not made public until much later, in 2004, but their professional bond endured as a deep friendship until the end, portrayed in the documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008). They met at precisely the right moment, as Italy came into fashion and captivated Americans thanks to movies like La dolce vita.

During those years, Elizabeth Taylor was in Rome filming Cleopatra, and the two became friends. She began wearing his designs, and the brand quickly became known in the United States. By the mid-1960s, Valentino was dressing the most important women in New York and Los Angeles, Giammetti recalled in an interview: “Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue, took a liking to us and called us ‘The Boys.’” Soon, New York felt like home — they became regulars at Andy Warhol’s parties — as did Paris, where they opened a headquarters on Place Vendôme.

By 1968, Valentino had distilled his brand to its essence with the famous “V” logo. In the 1960s, he became a legend, in part because the icons of high society and Hollywood gravitated toward him. From then on, he dressed queens and princesses. To grasp the extent to which he symbolized luxury and elegance, one need only recall that Farah Diba wore one of his designs on the day she left Iran for exile after the Islamic Revolution. Valentino dressed Jacqueline Kennedy for John F. Kennedy’s funeral and later for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, and then virtually all the great film divas, from Sophia Loren to Julia Roberts. As many as eight actresses have accepted their Oscars wearing his gowns — one of his many records.

It was the world he had always dreamed of: an almost unreal realm ruled by beauty, which seemed his natural destiny. He used to say that as a child he would pretend to be asleep and dream of Judy Garland and Hedy Lamarr floating among the stars of Hollywood. “I miss the time when there were no limits to opulence and elegance. Perhaps I left at the right moment, because I could no longer do what I used to do,” he said after retiring.

In the end, in his own fairy-tale opulence and princely lifestyle, he himself became a character worthy of his childhood dreams. He even appeared in the film The Devil Wears Prada, making a cameo as himself —like a god of fashion descending to earth — and in that world, that is very much what he was: always slightly distant and unattainable, in a different category altogether. He was aware of it and played with that persona of an exclusive planet barely touching the ground. In a 2017 interview with Corriere della Sera, a journalist asked whether he always traveled by private jet, since she could not imagine him on a commercial flight. “Indeed, don’t imagine it,” he replied.

Eccentric and sophisticated, perpetually tanned and impeccably groomed, devoted to his dogs — a pack of ill-tempered little pugs — he was also famous for his lavish parties, some of them held at his château near Paris. “Making clothes was the best choice for me, because I’m terrible at everything else,” he once confessed.

Red — his red, a kind of blend of cadmium, purple, and carmine — was the discovery that became his signature, though in an interview he could not even remember how he arrived at it. “It was a long process of research, mixing many shades… I don’t remember it, but I wanted a red with a hint of orange. In the end, I achieved it.” As for his obsession with red, he explained that for him, it was the perfect color to elevate a woman’s beauty: “When you see a woman dressed in red, you feel a great sense of relief.”

For decades, Valentino and Giammetti formed a legendary tandem in the fashion world. When Valentino was once asked what Giammetti meant to him, he replied: “I wouldn’t know how to answer. Sharing an entire existence with another person — every moment, joy, pain, enthusiasm, disappointment — is something indefinable.” Together they ran Valentino until 1998, when they sold the brand for $300 million to HDP, and even retained their positions after it was acquired by the Marzotto Group in 2002, until their final departure. In 2007, the firm was purchased by the investment fund Permira, and later, in 2012, by Qatar’s Mayhoola fund, which holds a 30% stake in the French luxury group Kering.

Giammetti described how they felt an era coming to an end: “It was becoming a world where I was no longer happy. It’s not that Valentino and I despise money, but we don’t consider it as important as creativity. In recent years, we always had to argue with our partners. I handled those discussions and then informed Valentino, but that was the main reason why, in the end, he said enough.”

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