Valentino Garavani, Legendary Italian Fashion Designer, Dies at 93

Valentino Garavani, the jet-set Italian designer whose high-glamour gowns — often in his trademark shade of red — were fashion show staples for nearly half a century, has died at home in Rome, his foundation announced on Monday. Usually ​known only by his first name, Valentino was 93. Founder of the eponymous brand, ​Valentino scaled the heights of haute couture, created a business ⁠empire and introduced a new colour ‍to ⁠the fashion ​world: the so-called Valentino Red. "Valentino Garavani passed away today at his Roman residence, surrounded by his loved ⁠ones," the foundation said on Instagram. The lying in state will be on ‍Wednesday and Thursday, while the funeral will take place in Rome on Friday morning, it added. Valentino was adored by generations of royals, first ladies and movie stars, from Jackie Kennedy Onassis to Julia Roberts to Queen Rania of Jordan, who swore the designer always made them look and feel their best. "I know what women want," Valentino once remarked. "They want to be beautiful." Never one for edginess or statement dressing, Valentino made precious few fashion faux-pas throughout his nearly half-century-long career, which stretched from his early days in Rome in the 1960s through to his retirement in 2008. His fail-safe designs made Valentino the king of the red carpet, the go-to man for A-listers' awards ceremony needs. His sumptuous gowns have graced countless Academy Awards, notably in 2001, when Roberts wore a vintage black and white column dress to accept her best actress statue. Cate Blanchett also wore Valentino — a one-shouldered number in butter-yellow silk — when she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 2004. Valentino was also behind the long-sleeved lace dress Jacqueline Kennedy wore for her wedding to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968. Kennedy and Valentino were close friends for decades, and for a spell the one-time U.S. first lady wore almost exclusively Valentino. He was also close to Diana, Princess of Wales, who often donned his sumptuous gowns. "He had an incredible aesthetic. His idea of elegance was like no one else's, and he stayed true to that time and time again," Canadian fashion journalist and author Jeanne Beker told CBC News. "He was an incredible, bright light and he will never be forgotten for all his contributions to fashion." Beker, who met and interviewed Valentino numerous times in her career, said both his incredible kindness and dedication to his own unique, elegant taste sustained him through his early beginnings in Milan to later success in Paris. That largely amounted to a blend of the traditionally feminine — his trademarks included bows, ruffles, lace and embroidery — and the empowering qualities of red. The result, she said, was a stunning mix of understated and gorgeous simplicity, along with knockout confidence sure to turn heads. "Milan was known more for, kind of sportswear. Valentino was doing sumptuous ball gowns and gorgeous, elegant day dressing," she said. "And some of the most fashionable women on the planet would gravitate to him for that magic touch that he gave them." Perpetually tanned and impeccably dressed, Valentino shared the lifestyle of his jet-set patrons. In addition to his 46-metre yacht and an art collection including works by Picasso and Miro, the couturier owned a 17th-century chateau near Paris with a garden said to boast more than a million roses. "He was so emblematic of an imperial lifestyle that just doesn't really exist anymore," Tim Blanks, editor-at-large at Business of Fashion and author of an upcoming book about Valentino, told CBC News. "Obviously, the world is filled with incredibly wealthy people living incredibly opulent lives, but there's something about Valentino that defined culture." Valentino and his longtime partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, flitted among their homes — which included places in New York, London, Rome, Capri and Gstaad, Switzerland — travelling with their pack of pugs. The pair regularly received A-list friends and patrons, including Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow. "For me, woman is like a beautiful, beautiful flower bouquet. She has always to be sensational ... always to be perfect, always to please the husband, the lover, everybody," the designer told RTL television in a 2007 interview. "Because we are born to show ourselves always at our best." Cinematic beginnings Valentino was born into a well-off family in the northern Italian town of Voghera on May 11, 1932. He said it was his childhood love of cinema that set him down the fashion path. "I was crazy for silver screen, I was crazy for beauty, to see all those movie stars being sensation, well-dressed, being always perfect," he explained in the 2007 television interview. That love of cinema lasted his entire life, Blanks said. He regularly hosted movie nights in the basement of his house in Rome with the same group of friends he maintained throughout the majority of his career, with a recurrent theme on screen. "Everybody would watch his favorite film, Ziegfeld Girl with Judy Garland and Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr, which he must have seen 1,000 times," he said. "I mean, he saw it when he was a child and it really shaped his idea of glamour and beauty." After studying fashion in Milan and Paris, he spent much of the 1950s working for established Paris-based designer Jean Desses and later Guy Laroche, before striking out on his own. He founded the house of Valentino on Rome's Via Condotti in 1959. From the beginning, Giammetti was by his side, handling the business aspect while Valentino used his natural charm to build a client base among the world's rich and fabulous. After some early financial setbacks — Valentino's tastes were always lavish, and the company spent with abandon — the brand took off. Early fans included Italian screen sirens Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren, as well as Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Legendary American Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland also took the young designer under her wing. Over the years, Valentino's empire expanded as the designer added ready-to-wear, menswear and accessories lines to his stable. Valentino and Giammetti sold the label to an Italian holding company for an estimated $300 million US in 1998. Valentino would remain in a design role for another decade. In 2007, the couturier feted his 45th anniversary in fashion with a three-day-long blowout in Rome, capped with a grand ball in the Villa Borghese gallery. Valentino retired in 2008 and was briefly replaced by fellow Italian Alessandra Facchinetti, who had stepped into Tom Ford's shoes at Gucci before being sacked after two seasons. Facchinetti's tenure at Valentino proved equally short. As early as her first show for the label, rumours swirled that she was already on her way out. Just about one year after she was hired, Facchinetti was indeed replaced by two longtime accessories designers at the brand, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli. Chiuri left to helm Dior in 2016, and Piccioli continued to lead the house through a golden period that drew on the launch of the Rockstud pump with Chiuri and his own signature colour, a shade of fuchsia called Pink PP. He left the house in 2024, later joining Balenciaga, and has been replaced by Alessandro Michele, who revived Gucci's stars with romantic, genderless styles.