Remembering Valentino Garavani, master of Italian glamour (1932-2026)

Valentino Garavani, the founder of Roman fashion house Valentino, has passed away today, it has been announced by his eponymous foundation. Aged 93, he was at home in Rome, surrounded by loved ones.

Known for an expressive glamour rooted in his adopted home city of Rome – where he founded the house in 1959, after stints at Balenciaga and Guy Laroche – he would be defined by the bold shade of red (‘Valentino Rosso’) which ran through his collections, as well as his close ties with cinema, dressing leading ladies from Italy and beyond. Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren were some of his friends and muses.

Remembering Valentino Garavani (1932-2026)

Born in Voghera, northern Italy in 1932, his pursuit of fashion began in Milan in 1949, where he enrolled at Santa Maria Institute to study ‘fashion sketching’, before moving to Paris in 1949. There, he would become a student at École des Beaux-Arts, winning the prestigious International Wool Secretariat which led to a job at Jean Dessès, a now-defunct haute couture house known for gowns in chiffon inspired by the draped silhouettes of ancient Greece and Rome. Other roles in Paris would see him work alongside the greats of the day – namely Cristóbal Balenciaga and Guy Laroche.

He would return to Italy in 1959, and to Rome, which would become his adopted home city during his lifetime. That same year, he founded his eponymous atelier on Via Condotti; one year later, he would meet his partner in life and work, Giancarlo Giammetti. A definitive figure in Garavani’s life, they would remain partners until the end. Just last year, they established PM23, a new cultural hub for their eponymous foundation, Fondazione Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti. Opening in Piazza Mignanelli, the original headquarters of Valentino, the first exhibition put Garavani’s creations in conversation with contemporary artworks.

‘Seeing the dresses and artworks together sparked emotions we didn’t anticipate,’ Giammetti told Wallpaper*. ‘It reminded us how timeless beauty can be, and how creativity speaks across decades. It was both a professional and personal journey. It’s emotional. You don’t realise what you’ve built until you take a step back.’

It was in the 1960s that Garavani would establish his name: in 1962, he held his first runway show at the Pitti Palace in Florence. Red, first introduced in his 1959 ‘Fiesta’ collection, would become a signature: he says that he was first inspired by a woman dressed in red velvet at the opera, where he was watching Bizet’s Carmen. ‘Among all the colours worn by the other women, she looked unique, isolated in her splendour,’ he said. ‘I said to myself that if I were ever going to become a designer, I would do lots of red.’

It was also in the 1960s that Garavani would establish a coterie of notable muses, many of them from the world of cinema. These included Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Jackie Kennedy Onassis, who were all devotees and friends. They would make him synonymous with the burgeoning jet-set of the era, and propel him to fame: alongside his work, he was known for his own glamorous lifestyle, as captured in ‘Valentino: The Emperor’, a 2009 documentary. In it, he prepares for a retrospective of his then 45-year career, travelling around the world in glamorous style, surrounded by a phalanx of staff and his beloved pug dogs. His captivating personality made him a household name (in 2006, he played himself in Devil Wears Prada).

Above all, though, his work was defined by a steadfast pursuit of beauty, eschewing ephemeral trends for a timeless vision of glamour. ‘I think I have succeeded because through all these decades I was always concerned about making beautiful clothes,’ says Mr Garavani in a recent book ‘Valentino: A Grand Italian Epic’. ‘Let’s forget fashion. It goes in other directions sometimes: the grunge look, the messy look. I don’t care; I really don’t care. I cannot see women destroyed.’

He retired from the house in 2008 after his final haute couture show in Paris, briefly succeeded by Alessandra Facchinetti before Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli became joint creative directors. After Chiuri’s exit to go to Dior in 2016, Piccioli then became the sole creative director. After his own departure in 2024, he was replaced by Alessandro Michele, who remains at the house.

‘Touching his creations, I realise that he was very aware of the preciousness of life,’ Michele said of Garavani after his debut at the house in 2024. ‘He made clothes for friends and acquaintances and people belonging to his sentimental world. I don’t think he was working, I think he was simply living.’

Garavani will lie in state at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 from this Wednesday, with a funeral taking place on Friday at Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome.