🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 107 (from laksa068)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa107.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.vogue.com/article/valentino-garavani\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.vogue.com/article/valentino-garavani\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/article\/valentino-garavani","crawl_time":1775707007,"first_indexed_time":1768842969,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,vogue!www,\/article\/valentino-garavani s443","src_root_hash":"10319582172195527707","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Valentino Garavani, Couturier to the Stars, Has Died at 93 | Vogue","meta_descriptions":["Valentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and celebrities, has died. He was 93."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Valentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and stars of the day, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93.\nWith his exacting pattern-making, signature hue of\npoppy red\n, and eye for feminine details like bows, ruffles, lace, and embroideries, Valentino was one of the key architects of late 20th century glamour. Val’s Gals, as his coterie was often called, included Elizabeth Taylor,\nAudrey Hepburn\n, and Sophia Loren. Jackie Kennedy wore a white gown of Valentino’s creation for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, and decades later the designer interpreted a mint green gown he had made for the former first lady in 1967 for Jennifer Lopez’s appearance at the 2003 Oscars. In 2001 Julia Roberts accepted her Best Actress award for\nErin Brokovich\nin a vintage black and white Valentino gown.\nIn 2009, The designer was the subject of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed\ndocumentary\n,\nValentino: The Last Emperor\n, which followed the designer, his career-long business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, and his entourage in the two years leading up to his retirement. In the film, Valentino tells a reporter: “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful,” a 10-word summation of the aesthetic that had turned him into a multimillionaire.\nIn the years after his retirement in 2008, which was feted with a three-day extravaganza in Rome, Valentino hardly faded from public view. He could be found many seasons sitting in the front row of Paris’s Hotel de Rothschild, taking in the latest collection from creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, the latter of whom\ndecamped for Christian Dior\nin 2016. Valentino was so moved by Piccioli’s haute couture collection for\nfall 2018\nthat he stood for an ovation, tears rolling down his tanned cheeks.\nWhen he wasn’t cheering on the designers who inherited his label, Garavani could often be seen on Instagram, hosting glamorous parties at his French estate Wideville or on his yacht TM Blue One, rarely without his brood of pugs in tow.\n“My last memory of Valentino is watching him delighting in Alessandro Michele’s first collection for Valentino,” says Anna Wintour, Global Chief Content Officer and Artistic Director at Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of\nVogue\n. “This was over FaceTime on Giancarlo Giammetti’s phone. Delight is a word I associate so completely with Valentino. He was always the best company, always a perfect host. He adored his extraordinary clients and led the life they did—and so he totally understood their needs. His manners were impeccable. He was breathtakingly polite, admiring, and generous. Yes, he was of a certain world, but not boxed in by it. His clothes were effortless, feminine, and delightful (that word again).  And in all things he was guided, protected, and adored by his lifelong friend and partner, Giancarlo—a true keeper of the flame.”\nValentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Voghera, Italy, on May 11, 1932. He decided on design as his métier early on and enrolled at the Accademia dell’Arte in Milan where he studied fashion and French. Pursuing his ambition, at 17 Garavani moved to Paris to attend the École des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Post-studies, he assisted Jean Dessés, a Greek designer known for his pleated evening dresses, and Guy Laroche, a Frenchman with a sportier aesthetic.\nAfter a year spent working alongside the noted beauty Princess Irene Galitzine, who popularized elegant evening pajamas, Garavani set out on his own with the backing of his father and a family friend, establishing his maison, circa 1959, on Rome’s Via Condotti. “It was\nune maison de couture,\n” explained Giammetti—who met Garavani soon after—in an interview with\nVanity Fair.\n“I say it in French because it was very much on the line of what he had seen in Paris… Everything was very grand already. Models flew from Paris for his first show. Italian fashion was very limited at the time. There were a few good designers, but just a few.”\nWith Giammetti at his side, Valentino became one of the very best, despite the fact that within a year he was facing bankruptcy. He blamed his “champagne tastes,” and the pair soon vacated Via Condotti and moved to a smaller space in a 16th-century palazzo on the Via Gregoriana.\nThe press, initially interested in Valentino as a budding talent and handsome new face, soon had more incentive to pay attention to this young designer: his celebrity pull. In 1961, the violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor, in town to shoot\nCleopatra\n, chose a white haute couture column by Valentino to wear to the premiere of\nSpartacus.\nThe designer’s All White couture collection of 1968 is the one that set him solidly in the firmature of Italian design.\nVogue\ndeclared it “the talk of Europe,” and waxed lyrical about “the cleanliness and distinction of his crisp whites, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all triumphs for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become the idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury.” Some of these marvels were photographed by the magazine in Cy Twombly’s Roman apartment on Marisa Berenson, who, as a granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli, qualified as fashion royalty.\nDespite the white collection’s historical importance, the designer will forever be associated with the color red, and not just any shade, but a sparkling crisp Valentino red that speaks of Italy, passion, religion, lust, and love.\n“Everything,” he once said, “is made to attract, seduce, entrance.” As alluring a woman wearing Valentino might be, however, she was above all and unmistakably a lady.\nThere is a certain polish and formality to Valentino’s work that speaks to an earlier age of glamour and the beginnings of the jet set, which is now a thing of the past. The\ndream\nof the good life never gets old, however, and the lure of the brand was, in part, its link to the lives of “the rich and famous,” an A-list crowd of which Valentino was a member. It should be noted that formality is not synonymous with modesty; evening dresses with lingerie touches were a part of Garavani’s repertoire, and he appreciated a lovely decolletage. Also abs: dresses with tastefully placed cut-outs were another specialty that appealed to the fit and fabulous.\nCasual was always a relative term in Valentino’s world—the designer even looked put-together in that famous paparazzi pic taken in Capri in 1970 with a barefoot Jackie O. His signature look was a perfect coif, a rich tan, and a suit. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who joined the house in 2008 (and who dared to wear flip-flops to the office) remembers that the air conditioning was on full blast in the offices all summer so that the staff could wear suits. “I was happy that I arrived there when I was all grown up,” Piccioli told\nVogue\nin 2019. “Valentino was formal—very, very formal. There was a ritual, and I liked that.”\nAlthough Valentino was producing ready-to-wear from the category’s earliest days in the 1960s it was elevated rather than laid-back. “If anyone can approximate haute couture detailing in ready-to-wear, it is he,\nVogue\ncritic Sarah Mower noted decades on.\nThough Garavani has expressed his dislike for 1980s fashions,\nVogue\nwrote that the business soared at the time; reporting that “in 1986, Valentino was Italy’s top fashion exporter, shipping some $385 million that year.” If the Valentino aesthetic was the polar opposite of grunge that dominated so much of the ’90s, it was extremely relevant to the celebrity culture that started to take off in that decade. This shift benefited “Va-Va” greatly, and he racked up major red-carpet credits.\nLike the celebrities he dressed, Garavani was himself a star. As Piccioli once put it: “Valentino was the brand himself.” And the designer lived the life he designed for. Long after his retirement, Garavani remained an arbiter of taste and decorum and a paradigm of success. He lived his life in pursuit of beauty. “I loved working with him,” Piccioli told\nVogue.\n“I loved to hear him talking about his dreams of a dress drawn with one line.” Long may his dreams live.\nThe lying in state will be held at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 in Rome on January 21 and 22, and a funeral will take place on January 23 at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome, at 11 am.\n“Incisively black-and-white with a crunch of jet and strass-fumée embroidery” is how\nVogue\ndescribed Valentino’s zebra-stamped calfskin blazer.\nPhotographed by Leombruno-Bodi ,\nVogue,\nMarch 15, 1963\nPrincess Luciana Pignatelli wears an “evening coat\nfolie\nin white ostrich, white mink—most glorious way to arrive at a party since sedan-chairs went out. By Valentino, it opens over his long bias-cut white crepe dress.”\nPhotographed by Henry Clarke,\nVogue,\nNovember 15, 1964\nValentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Litta’s apartment in Rome.\nPhotographed by David Bailey,\nVogue,\nApril 1965\nMarisa Berenson takes in the view of Capri from the rooftop of Veneiro Colasanti and John Moore’s Studio wearing a stunning Valentino look: “white silk branching out into a thousand red leaves and unleashing a great panel train over red crepe pants.”\nPhotographed by Arnaud de Rosnay,\nVogue,\nJanuary 1, 1968\nPhotographed in Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome, “Valentino’s white—the talk of Europe. The cleanliness and distinction of his crisp white, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all, trimumphs,” reported\nVogue,\n“for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become an idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury….”\nPhotographed by Henry Clarke,\nVogue,\nMarch 15, 1968\nPhotographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left, Madame Philippe Leroy and Jean Claude de Luca in black velvet, and at right, the designer’s “Delft porcelain showstoppers …sensational in their silk luxuriousness.”\nPhotographed by Henry Clarke,\nVogue,\nSeptember 15, 1968\nAnn Turkel wears Valentino’s “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white organdie flamenco flounces.”\nPhotographed by Gianni Penati,\nVogue,\nMarch 15, 1969\nClaudia Cardinale in Valentino’s “tiers and tiers of clean white organza floating over languorous coral-silk pants.”\nPhotographed by Gianni Penati,\nVogue,\nApril 1, 1969\nThe sun sets in the Piazza di San Giorgio al Velabro and Verushcka is ready for the evening’s festivities in Valentino’s sashed blue-and-white jumpsuit .\nPhotographed by Franco Rubartelli,\nVogue,\nApril 1, 1969\n“Valentino does it again—and again! One great look—one great poncho—after another, Like this long, belted beige wool with flings of lynx and a short charmeuse-collared wool dress underneath.”\nPhotographed by Gianpaolo Barbieri,\nVogue,\nSeptember 15, 1969\nPhotographed by the Arch of Constantine, “one of the most beautiful coats you could own: double-faced wool printed in navy-and-white Positano foulard designs, the scarf patterns laid side by side and row upon row with absolute perfection. Belted in navy, buttoned in navy, and everything else in navy to match—the large straw hat, the stockings, the shoes.”\nPhotographed by Henry Clarke,\nVogue,\nMarch 15, 1970\nTailoring, with panache, from Valentino.\nPhotographed by Helmut Newton,\nVogue,\nSeptember 15, 1971\nRichard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino, a coiffure by Alexandre, and a mint’s worth of diamonds and emeralds.”\nPhotographed by Cecil Beaton,\nVogue,\nJanuary 15, 1972\n“At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory chiffon-and-lace chemise; right, a fluttery pink silk rose at the waist of a daring black chiffon dress.”\nPhotographed by Helmut Newton,\nVogue,\nMatch 15, 1972\nPaulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino’s maillot-inspired body-con dresses.\nPhotographed by Irving Penn,\nVogue,\nMarch 1985\nIn white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy, in Valentino Haute Couture, displays a “daring décolletage.”\nPhotographed by Steven Mesiel ,\nVogue,\nOctober 1998\nMaggie Rizer vamps in an inky look from a Valentino Haute Couture collection that was “all about temptation.” Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.\nPhotographed by Craig McDean,\nVogue,\nOctober 2002\nGisele Bündchen in goddess mode, the Valentino way: Chiffon top, pants, and shorts.\nPhotographed by Steven Klein,\nVogue,\nMarch 2003\nCameron Diaz gets carried away in a taffeta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.\nPhotographed by Annie Leibovitz,\nVogue,\nMay 2003\nNicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designer’s 2004 Haute Couture collection.\nPhotographed by Irving Penn,\nVogue,\nMay 2004\nJennie Runk in Valentino red.\nPhotographed by Steven Meisel,\nVogue,\nApril 2005\nLiya Kebede in Valentino’s black silk and white lace dress.\nPhotographed by Arthur Elgort,\nVogue,\nMarch 2006\nCaroline Trentini in “Valentino’s Goya-esque 1985 dress with a feathered lace back, shirred velvet waist, gathered duchesse satin skirt, and tulle train is ‘only about making a woman look and feel beautiful.’ ”\nPhotographed by Irving Penn,\nVogue,\nMarch 2007\nValentino Garavani.\nPhotographed by Horst P. Horst,\nVogue,\nApril 15, 1970\nGwyneth Paltrow and Valentino Garavani at the Venice Film Festival, 2002.\n Photo: Pascal Le Segretain \/ Getty Images\nMarie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001.\nPhoto: Evan Agostini \/ Getty Images\nHalle Berry in Valentino at the Golden Globe Awards, 2002.\nPhoto: Vince Bucci \/ Getty Images\nValentino Garavani and and Oprah Winfrey, 1996.\nPhoto: Richard Corkery \/ NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images\nValentino Garavani, 1970.\nPhoto: Ron Galella \/ Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images\nOscar winner Cate Blanchett in Valentino, 2005.\nPhoto: Kevin Winter \/ Getty Images\nAnne Hathaway and Valentino Garavani at the Oscars, 2011.\nPhoto: John Shearer \/ Getty Images\nOscar-winner Julia Roberts in Valentino, 2001.\nPhoto: Frank Trapper \/ Corbis via Getty Images \nJennifer Lopez, in Valentino, with Ben Affleck at the Academy Awards, 2003.\nPhoto: Frank Trapper \/ Corbis via Getty Images\nValentino Garavani and Jacqueline Kennedy, 1970.\nPhoto: Bettmann\nValentino Garavani and pugs, 1990s.\nPhoto: Archivio APG \/ Mondadori via Getty Images\nValentino Garavani in Rome, 1991.\nPhoto: Gianni Giansanti \/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images\nGolden Globe winner Halle Berry in Valentino, 2000.\nPhoto: Ron Galella \/ Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to main content](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/article\/valentino-garavani#main-content)\n\n[Your All-Access Pass to Vogue](https:\/\/vogue.smart.link\/84hdiudhc)\n\n[DOWNLOAD NOW](https:\/\/vogue.smart.link\/84hdiudhc)\n\nMenu\n\n[FASHION](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/fashion)\n\n[RUNWAY](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/fashion-shows)\n\n[SHOPPING](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/shopping)\n\n[BEAUTY](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/beauty)\n\n[CULTURE](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/culture)\n\n[LIVING](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/living)\n\n[VOGUE BUSINESS](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/business)\n\n[TEEN 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Giammetti and Premiere](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d0918082af0e9a58a15a\/master\/w_2560%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-2308645.jpg)\n\nMarie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001.Photo: Evan Agostini \/ Getty Images\n\nSave this story\n\nSave this story\n\nValentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and stars of the day, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93.\n\nWith his exacting pattern-making, signature hue of [poppy red](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/article\/happy-90-birthday-valentino-garavani-a-red-dress-celebration), and eye for feminine details like bows, ruffles, lace, and embroideries, Valentino was one of the key architects of late 20th century glamour. Val’s Gals, as his coterie was often called, included Elizabeth Taylor, [Audrey Hepburn](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/tag\/celebrity\/audrey-hepburn), and Sophia Loren. Jackie Kennedy wore a white gown of Valentino’s creation for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, and decades later the designer interpreted a mint green gown he had made for the former first lady in 1967 for Jennifer Lopez’s appearance at the 2003 Oscars. In 2001 Julia Roberts accepted her Best Actress award for *Erin Brokovich* in a vintage black and white Valentino gown.\n\nIn 2009, The designer was the subject of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed [documentary](https:\/\/www.vogue.co.uk\/gallery\/best-fashion-documentaries), *Valentino: The Last Emperor*, which followed the designer, his career-long business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, and his entourage in the two years leading up to his retirement. In the film, Valentino tells a reporter: “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful,” a 10-word summation of the aesthetic that had turned him into a multimillionaire.\n\nIn the years after his retirement in 2008, which was feted with a three-day extravaganza in Rome, Valentino hardly faded from public view. He could be found many seasons sitting in the front row of Paris’s Hotel de Rothschild, taking in the latest collection from creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, the latter of whom [decamped for Christian Dior](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/fashion-shows\/spring-2017-ready-to-wear\/christian-dior) in 2016. Valentino was so moved by Piccioli’s haute couture collection for [fall 2018](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/fashion-shows\/fall-2018-couture\/valentino) that he stood for an ovation, tears rolling down his tanned cheeks.\n\nWhen he wasn’t cheering on the designers who inherited his label, Garavani could often be seen on Instagram, hosting glamorous parties at his French estate Wideville or on his yacht TM Blue One, rarely without his brood of pugs in tow.\n\n“My last memory of Valentino is watching him delighting in Alessandro Michele’s first collection for Valentino,” says Anna Wintour, Global Chief Content Officer and Artistic Director at Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of *Vogue*. “This was over FaceTime on Giancarlo Giammetti’s phone. Delight is a word I associate so completely with Valentino. He was always the best company, always a perfect host. He adored his extraordinary clients and led the life they did—and so he totally understood their needs. His manners were impeccable. He was breathtakingly polite, admiring, and generous. Yes, he was of a certain world, but not boxed in by it. His clothes were effortless, feminine, and delightful (that word again). And in all things he was guided, protected, and adored by his lifelong friend and partner, Giancarlo—a true keeper of the flame.”\n\nValentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Voghera, Italy, on May 11, 1932. He decided on design as his métier early on and enrolled at the Accademia dell’Arte in Milan where he studied fashion and French. Pursuing his ambition, at 17 Garavani moved to Paris to attend the École des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Post-studies, he assisted Jean Dessés, a Greek designer known for his pleated evening dresses, and Guy Laroche, a Frenchman with a sportier aesthetic.\n\nAfter a year spent working alongside the noted beauty Princess Irene Galitzine, who popularized elegant evening pajamas, Garavani set out on his own with the backing of his father and a family friend, establishing his maison, circa 1959, on Rome’s Via Condotti. “It was *une maison de couture,*” explained Giammetti—who met Garavani soon after—in an interview with *Vanity Fair.* “I say it in French because it was very much on the line of what he had seen in Paris… Everything was very grand already. Models flew from Paris for his first show. Italian fashion was very limited at the time. There were a few good designers, but just a few.”\n\nWith Giammetti at his side, Valentino became one of the very best, despite the fact that within a year he was facing bankruptcy. He blamed his “champagne tastes,” and the pair soon vacated Via Condotti and moved to a smaller space in a 16th-century palazzo on the Via Gregoriana.\n\nThe press, initially interested in Valentino as a budding talent and handsome new face, soon had more incentive to pay attention to this young designer: his celebrity pull. In 1961, the violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor, in town to shoot *Cleopatra*, chose a white haute couture column by Valentino to wear to the premiere of *Spartacus.*\n\nThe designer’s All White couture collection of 1968 is the one that set him solidly in the firmature of Italian design. *Vogue* declared it “the talk of Europe,” and waxed lyrical about “the cleanliness and distinction of his crisp whites, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all triumphs for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become the idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury.” Some of these marvels were photographed by the magazine in Cy Twombly’s Roman apartment on Marisa Berenson, who, as a granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli, qualified as fashion royalty.\n\nDespite the white collection’s historical importance, the designer will forever be associated with the color red, and not just any shade, but a sparkling crisp Valentino red that speaks of Italy, passion, religion, lust, and love.\n\n“Everything,” he once said, “is made to attract, seduce, entrance.” As alluring a woman wearing Valentino might be, however, she was above all and unmistakably a lady.\n\nThere is a certain polish and formality to Valentino’s work that speaks to an earlier age of glamour and the beginnings of the jet set, which is now a thing of the past. The *dream* of the good life never gets old, however, and the lure of the brand was, in part, its link to the lives of “the rich and famous,” an A-list crowd of which Valentino was a member. It should be noted that formality is not synonymous with modesty; evening dresses with lingerie touches were a part of Garavani’s repertoire, and he appreciated a lovely decolletage. Also abs: dresses with tastefully placed cut-outs were another specialty that appealed to the fit and fabulous.\n\nCasual was always a relative term in Valentino’s world—the designer even looked put-together in that famous paparazzi pic taken in Capri in 1970 with a barefoot Jackie O. His signature look was a perfect coif, a rich tan, and a suit. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who joined the house in 2008 (and who dared to wear flip-flops to the office) remembers that the air conditioning was on full blast in the offices all summer so that the staff could wear suits. “I was happy that I arrived there when I was all grown up,” Piccioli told *Vogue* in 2019. “Valentino was formal—very, very formal. There was a ritual, and I liked that.”\n\nAlthough Valentino was producing ready-to-wear from the category’s earliest days in the 1960s it was elevated rather than laid-back. “If anyone can approximate haute couture detailing in ready-to-wear, it is he, *Vogue* critic Sarah Mower noted decades on.\n\nThough Garavani has expressed his dislike for 1980s fashions, *Vogue* wrote that the business soared at the time; reporting that “in 1986, Valentino was Italy’s top fashion exporter, shipping some \\$385 million that year.” If the Valentino aesthetic was the polar opposite of grunge that dominated so much of the ’90s, it was extremely relevant to the celebrity culture that started to take off in that decade. This shift benefited “Va-Va” greatly, and he racked up major red-carpet credits.\n\nLike the celebrities he dressed, Garavani was himself a star. As Piccioli once put it: “Valentino was the brand himself.” And the designer lived the life he designed for. Long after his retirement, Garavani remained an arbiter of taste and decorum and a paradigm of success. He lived his life in pursuit of beauty. “I loved working with him,” Piccioli told *Vogue.* “I loved to hear him talking about his dreams of a dress drawn with one line.” Long may his dreams live.\n\n*The lying in state will be held at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 in Rome on January 21 and 22, and a funeral will take place on January 23 at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome, at 11 am.*\n\n![Valentinos zebrastamped calfskin blazer](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5af84874650ab51914fb\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\n“Incisively black-and-white with a crunch of jet and strass-fumée embroidery” is how *Vogue* described Valentino’s zebra-stamped calfskin blazer.Photographed by Leombruno-Bodi , *Vogue,* March 15, 1963\n\n![Princess Luciana Pignatelli in Valentino](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5af8157b810986b9c4d4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/002-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPrincess Luciana Pignatelli wears an “evening coat *folie* in white ostrich, white mink—most glorious way to arrive at a party since sedan-chairs went out. By Valentino, it opens over his long bias-cut white crepe dress.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* November 15, 1964\n\n![Valentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Littas apartment in Rome.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afc2d8fce43659028d6\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/003-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nValentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Litta’s apartment in Rome.Photographed by David Bailey, *Vogue,* April 1965\n\n![Marisa Berenson in Valentino in Capri](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afa2d8fce43659028d4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/006-19680101-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nMarisa Berenson takes in the view of Capri from the rooftop of Veneiro Colasanti and John Moore’s Studio wearing a stunning Valentino look: “white silk branching out into a thousand red leaves and unleashing a great panel train over red crepe pants.”Photographed by Arnaud de Rosnay, *Vogue,* January 1, 1968\n\n![Valentino's white on white designs photographed in Cy Twombly's apartment](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afab73c151a2ccf0787\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/007-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPhotographed in Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome, “Valentino’s white—the talk of Europe. The cleanliness and distinction of his crisp white, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all, trimumphs,” reported *Vogue,* “for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become an idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury….”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* March 15, 1968\n\n![Photographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left Madame...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afcbf06ee05c156f164\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/008-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPhotographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left, Madame Philippe Leroy and Jean Claude de Luca in black velvet, and at right, the designer’s “Delft porcelain showstoppers …sensational in their silk luxuriousness.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* September 15, 1968\n\n![Ann Turkel wears Valentinos “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afb03e1bf6bac9a721d\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/010-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nAnn Turkel wears Valentino’s “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white organdie flamenco flounces.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, *Vogue,* March 15, 1969\n\n![Claudia Cardinale in Valentino](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afc524dcd1b9bd2e613\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/011-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nClaudia Cardinale in Valentino’s “tiers and tiers of clean white organza floating over languorous coral-silk pants.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, *Vogue,* April 1, 1969\n\n![Verushcka in Valentinos sashed blueandwhite jumpsuit](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afd2d8fce43659028d8\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/013-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nThe sun sets in the Piazza di San Giorgio al Velabro and Verushcka is ready for the evening’s festivities in Valentino’s sashed blue-and-white jumpsuit .Photographed by Franco Rubartelli, *Vogue,* April 1, 1969\n\n![Valentino belted beige wool poncho with flings of lynx and a short charmeusecollared wool dress underneath](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afeb73c151a2ccf0789\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/015-19690915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\n“Valentino does it again—and again! One great look—one great poncho—after another, Like this long, belted beige wool with flings of lynx and a short charmeuse-collared wool dress underneath.”Photographed by Gianpaolo Barbieri, *Vogue,* September 15, 1969\n\n![Valentino's doublefaced wool coat printed in navyandwhite Positano foulard designs](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afe4874650ab51914fd\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/017-19700315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPhotographed by the Arch of Constantine, “one of the most beautiful coats you could own: double-faced wool printed in navy-and-white Positano foulard designs, the scarf patterns laid side by side and row upon row with absolute perfection. Belted in navy, buttoned in navy, and everything else in navy to match—the large straw hat, the stockings, the shoes.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* March 15, 1970\n\n![Tailoring with panache from Valentino.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b0009db6f15947b5e28\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/021-19710915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nTailoring, with panache, from Valentino.Photographed by Helmut Newton, *Vogue,* September 15, 1971\n\n![Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino a coiffure by Alexandre and a mints worth...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b01c7fb502463a235ae\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/022%252019720115-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nRichard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino, a coiffure by Alexandre, and a mint’s worth of diamonds and emeralds.”Photographed by Cecil Beaton, *Vogue,* January 15, 1972\n\n![“At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b02b8dc955ffcd2416f\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/023-19720315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\n“At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory chiffon-and-lace chemise; right, a fluttery pink silk rose at the waist of a daring black chiffon dress.”Photographed by Helmut Newton, *Vogue,* Match 15, 1972\n\n![Paulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino's maillotinspired bodycon dresses.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b054874650ab51914ff\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/029-19850301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPaulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino’s maillot-inspired body-con dresses.Photographed by Irving Penn, *Vogue,* March 1985\n\n![In white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy in Valentino Haute Couture displays a “daring dcolletage.”](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b07eb3f6109c5bfdb4d\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/037-20090501valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nIn white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy, in Valentino Haute Couture, displays a “daring décolletage.”Photographed by Steven Mesiel , *Vogue,* October 1998\n\n![Maggie Rizer in Valentino Haute Couture Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b07c7fb502463a235b2\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/038-20021001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nMaggie Rizer vamps in an inky look from a Valentino Haute Couture collection that was “all about temptation.” Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.Photographed by Craig McDean, *Vogue,* October 2002\n\n![Gisele Bündchen in goddess mode the Valentino way Chiffon top pants and shorts.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b08eb3f6109c5bfdb4f\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/040-20030301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nGisele Bündchen in goddess mode, the Valentino way: Chiffon top, pants, and shorts.Photographed by Steven Klein, *Vogue,* March 2003\n\n![Cameron Diazin a tafetta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b08b67ab420ab2fca3a\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/041-20030501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nCameron Diaz gets carried away in a taffeta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, *Vogue,* May 2003\n\n![Nicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designers 2004 Haute Couture collection.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b081157d91a1149c543\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/042-20040501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nNicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designer’s 2004 Haute Couture collection.Photographed by Irving Penn, *Vogue,* May 2004\n\n![Jennie Runk in Valentino red.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b08524dcd1b9bd2e619\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/043-20050401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nJennie Runk in Valentino red.Photographed by Steven Meisel, *Vogue,* April 2005\n\n![Image may contain Fashion Evening Dress Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Necklace Jewelry Accessories and Accessory](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b09b8dc955ffcd24173\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/046-20060301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nLiya Kebede in Valentino’s black silk and white lace dress.Photographed by Arthur Elgort, *Vogue,* March 2006\n\n![Caroline Trentini in Valentinos Goyaesque 1985 dress](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b0a4874650ab5191503\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/047-20070301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nCaroline Trentini in “Valentino’s Goya-esque 1985 dress with a feathered lace back, shirred velvet waist, gathered duchesse satin skirt, and tulle train is ‘only about making a woman look and feel beautiful.’ ”Photographed by Irving Penn, *Vogue,* March 2007\n\n![Image may contain Cushion Pillow Human Person Furniture Interior Design Indoors Couch Clothing Apparel and Bed](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b0a7696061b846d2eaf\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/19700415-valentino-garavani.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani.Photographed by Horst P. Horst, *Vogue,* April 15, 1970\n\n![Image may contain Gwyneth Paltrow Tie Accessories Accessory Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel Human and Person](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d090bc863be215bd71e5\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-1360328.jpg)\n\nGwyneth Paltrow and Valentino Garavani at the Venice Film Festival, 2002. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Evening Dress Fashion Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Human Person Giancarlo Giammetti and Premiere](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d0918082af0e9a58a15a\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-2308645.jpg)\n\nMarie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001.Photo: Evan Agostini \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Halle Berry Fashion Premiere Human Person Red Carpet Red Carpet Premiere Footwear and Clothing](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d091422e0f6c847baafa\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-692493.jpg)\n\nHalle Berry in Valentino at the Golden Globe Awards, 2002.Photo: Vince Bucci \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel and Oprah Winfrey](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d092f3fef34108819050\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-97324689.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani and and Oprah Winfrey, 1996.Photo: Richard Corkery \/ NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Human Person Fashion Home Decor Clothing Apparel and Premiere](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d09215d980ff4be4f109\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-75298985.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani, 1970.Photo: Ron Galella \/ Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Cate Blanchett Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown and Robe](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d0928082af0e9a58a15c\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-52251521.jpg)\n\nOscar winner Cate Blanchett in Valentino, 2005.Photo: Kevin Winter \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Anne Hathaway Human Person Red Carpet Fashion Red Carpet Premiere Premiere Tie and Accessories](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d093bc863be215bd71e7\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-109477604.jpg)\n\nAnne Hathaway and Valentino Garavani at the Oscars, 2011.Photo: John Shearer \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Julia Roberts Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown Robe Plant and Flower](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d094422e0f6c847baafc\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-529540690.jpg)\n\nOscar-winner Julia Roberts in Valentino, 2001.Photo: Frank Trapper \/ Corbis via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Ben Affleck Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Fashion Premiere Suit Coat and Clothing](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d094f9e3334bcad92ab3\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-529565714.jpg)\n\nJennifer Lopez, in Valentino, with Ben Affleck at the Academy Awards, 2003.Photo: Frank Trapper \/ Corbis via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Human Person Dance Pose Leisure Activities Sunglasses Accessories Accessory Footwear and Clothing](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d096679b08e243df5df5\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-515395308.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani and Jacqueline Kennedy, 1970.Photo: Bettmann\n\n![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Clothing Apparel Suit Coat Overcoat Animal Dog Mammal Pet and Canine](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d0976ee5fc9c17db101d\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-1155592948.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani and pugs, 1990s.Photo: Archivio APG \/ Mondadori via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Human Person Interior Design Indoors Stage Architecture Building Clothing and Apparel](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d09bf366dc562f987089\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-850704188.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani in Rome, 1991.Photo: Gianni Giansanti \/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Halle Berry Clothing Apparel Human Person Fashion Evening Dress Gown Robe and Premiere](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d4dbf3fef34108819054\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-156071795.jpg)\n\nGolden Globe winner Halle Berry in Valentino, 2000.Photo: Ron Galella \/ Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images\n\n[![](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/58584a9944b5d45318dc955c\/1:1\/w_90%2Cc_limit\/Laird-Borrelli-Persson.jpg)](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/contributor\/laird-borrelli-persson)\n\nChristian Lacroix is Laird Borrelli-Persson’s fashion raison d’etre; the way he combined romance and historicism set her on the path she is following today. Borrelli-Persson studied literature at Boston College, spending her junior year abroad at Oxford, where she added some art history. After graduation she moved to New York to intern ... 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[Ad Choices](http:\/\/www.aboutads.info\/)\n\nCN Fashion & Beauty\n\n###### Select international site\nUnited States\n\n- [Adria](https:\/\/vogueadria.com\/)\n- [Arabia](https:\/\/en.vogue.me\/)\n- [Australia](https:\/\/www.vogue.com.au\/)\n- [Brasil](https:\/\/vogue.globo.com\/)\n- [Britain](https:\/\/www.vogue.co.uk\/)\n- [China](https:\/\/www.vogue.com.cn\/)\n- [Czechoslovakia](https:\/\/www.vogue.cz\/)\n- [España](https:\/\/www.vogue.es\/)\n- [France](https:\/\/www.vogue.fr\/)\n- [Germany](https:\/\/www.vogue.de\/)\n- [Greece](https:\/\/vogue.gr\/)\n- [Hong Kong](https:\/\/www.voguehk.com\/zh\/)\n- [India](https:\/\/www.vogue.in\/)\n- [Italia](https:\/\/www.vogue.it\/)\n- [Japan](https:\/\/www.vogue.co.jp\/)\n- [Korea](https:\/\/www.vogue.co.kr\/)\n- [México](https:\/\/www.vogue.mx\/)\n- [Nederland](https:\/\/www.vogue.nl\/)\n- [Philippines](https:\/\/vogue.ph\/)\n- [Polska](https:\/\/www.vogue.pl\/)\n- [Portugal](https:\/\/www.vogue.pt\/)\n- [Scandinavia](https:\/\/www.voguescandinavia.com\/)\n- [Singapore](https:\/\/vogue.sg\/)\n- [Taiwan](https:\/\/www.vogue.com.tw\/)\n- [Thailand](https:\/\/www.vogue.co.th\/)\n- [Türkiye](https:\/\/vogue.com.tr\/)\n- [Ukraine](https:\/\/vogue.ua\/)","attrs_readable_markdown":"Valentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and stars of the day, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93.\n\nWith his exacting pattern-making, signature hue of [poppy red](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/article\/happy-90-birthday-valentino-garavani-a-red-dress-celebration), and eye for feminine details like bows, ruffles, lace, and embroideries, Valentino was one of the key architects of late 20th century glamour. Val’s Gals, as his coterie was often called, included Elizabeth Taylor, [Audrey Hepburn](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/tag\/celebrity\/audrey-hepburn), and Sophia Loren. Jackie Kennedy wore a white gown of Valentino’s creation for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, and decades later the designer interpreted a mint green gown he had made for the former first lady in 1967 for Jennifer Lopez’s appearance at the 2003 Oscars. In 2001 Julia Roberts accepted her Best Actress award for *Erin Brokovich* in a vintage black and white Valentino gown.\n\nIn 2009, The designer was the subject of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed [documentary](https:\/\/www.vogue.co.uk\/gallery\/best-fashion-documentaries), *Valentino: The Last Emperor*, which followed the designer, his career-long business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, and his entourage in the two years leading up to his retirement. In the film, Valentino tells a reporter: “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful,” a 10-word summation of the aesthetic that had turned him into a multimillionaire.\n\nIn the years after his retirement in 2008, which was feted with a three-day extravaganza in Rome, Valentino hardly faded from public view. He could be found many seasons sitting in the front row of Paris’s Hotel de Rothschild, taking in the latest collection from creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, the latter of whom [decamped for Christian Dior](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/fashion-shows\/spring-2017-ready-to-wear\/christian-dior) in 2016. Valentino was so moved by Piccioli’s haute couture collection for [fall 2018](https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/fashion-shows\/fall-2018-couture\/valentino) that he stood for an ovation, tears rolling down his tanned cheeks.\n\nWhen he wasn’t cheering on the designers who inherited his label, Garavani could often be seen on Instagram, hosting glamorous parties at his French estate Wideville or on his yacht TM Blue One, rarely without his brood of pugs in tow.\n\n“My last memory of Valentino is watching him delighting in Alessandro Michele’s first collection for Valentino,” says Anna Wintour, Global Chief Content Officer and Artistic Director at Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of *Vogue*. “This was over FaceTime on Giancarlo Giammetti’s phone. Delight is a word I associate so completely with Valentino. He was always the best company, always a perfect host. He adored his extraordinary clients and led the life they did—and so he totally understood their needs. His manners were impeccable. He was breathtakingly polite, admiring, and generous. Yes, he was of a certain world, but not boxed in by it. His clothes were effortless, feminine, and delightful (that word again). And in all things he was guided, protected, and adored by his lifelong friend and partner, Giancarlo—a true keeper of the flame.”\n\nValentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Voghera, Italy, on May 11, 1932. He decided on design as his métier early on and enrolled at the Accademia dell’Arte in Milan where he studied fashion and French. Pursuing his ambition, at 17 Garavani moved to Paris to attend the École des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Post-studies, he assisted Jean Dessés, a Greek designer known for his pleated evening dresses, and Guy Laroche, a Frenchman with a sportier aesthetic.\n\nAfter a year spent working alongside the noted beauty Princess Irene Galitzine, who popularized elegant evening pajamas, Garavani set out on his own with the backing of his father and a family friend, establishing his maison, circa 1959, on Rome’s Via Condotti. “It was *une maison de couture,*” explained Giammetti—who met Garavani soon after—in an interview with *Vanity Fair.* “I say it in French because it was very much on the line of what he had seen in Paris… Everything was very grand already. Models flew from Paris for his first show. Italian fashion was very limited at the time. There were a few good designers, but just a few.”\n\nWith Giammetti at his side, Valentino became one of the very best, despite the fact that within a year he was facing bankruptcy. He blamed his “champagne tastes,” and the pair soon vacated Via Condotti and moved to a smaller space in a 16th-century palazzo on the Via Gregoriana.\n\nThe press, initially interested in Valentino as a budding talent and handsome new face, soon had more incentive to pay attention to this young designer: his celebrity pull. In 1961, the violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor, in town to shoot *Cleopatra*, chose a white haute couture column by Valentino to wear to the premiere of *Spartacus.*\n\nThe designer’s All White couture collection of 1968 is the one that set him solidly in the firmature of Italian design. *Vogue* declared it “the talk of Europe,” and waxed lyrical about “the cleanliness and distinction of his crisp whites, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all triumphs for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become the idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury.” Some of these marvels were photographed by the magazine in Cy Twombly’s Roman apartment on Marisa Berenson, who, as a granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli, qualified as fashion royalty.\n\nDespite the white collection’s historical importance, the designer will forever be associated with the color red, and not just any shade, but a sparkling crisp Valentino red that speaks of Italy, passion, religion, lust, and love.\n\n“Everything,” he once said, “is made to attract, seduce, entrance.” As alluring a woman wearing Valentino might be, however, she was above all and unmistakably a lady.\n\nThere is a certain polish and formality to Valentino’s work that speaks to an earlier age of glamour and the beginnings of the jet set, which is now a thing of the past. The *dream* of the good life never gets old, however, and the lure of the brand was, in part, its link to the lives of “the rich and famous,” an A-list crowd of which Valentino was a member. It should be noted that formality is not synonymous with modesty; evening dresses with lingerie touches were a part of Garavani’s repertoire, and he appreciated a lovely decolletage. Also abs: dresses with tastefully placed cut-outs were another specialty that appealed to the fit and fabulous.\n\nCasual was always a relative term in Valentino’s world—the designer even looked put-together in that famous paparazzi pic taken in Capri in 1970 with a barefoot Jackie O. His signature look was a perfect coif, a rich tan, and a suit. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who joined the house in 2008 (and who dared to wear flip-flops to the office) remembers that the air conditioning was on full blast in the offices all summer so that the staff could wear suits. “I was happy that I arrived there when I was all grown up,” Piccioli told *Vogue* in 2019. “Valentino was formal—very, very formal. There was a ritual, and I liked that.”\n\nAlthough Valentino was producing ready-to-wear from the category’s earliest days in the 1960s it was elevated rather than laid-back. “If anyone can approximate haute couture detailing in ready-to-wear, it is he, *Vogue* critic Sarah Mower noted decades on.\n\nThough Garavani has expressed his dislike for 1980s fashions, *Vogue* wrote that the business soared at the time; reporting that “in 1986, Valentino was Italy’s top fashion exporter, shipping some \\$385 million that year.” If the Valentino aesthetic was the polar opposite of grunge that dominated so much of the ’90s, it was extremely relevant to the celebrity culture that started to take off in that decade. This shift benefited “Va-Va” greatly, and he racked up major red-carpet credits.\n\nLike the celebrities he dressed, Garavani was himself a star. As Piccioli once put it: “Valentino was the brand himself.” And the designer lived the life he designed for. Long after his retirement, Garavani remained an arbiter of taste and decorum and a paradigm of success. He lived his life in pursuit of beauty. “I loved working with him,” Piccioli told *Vogue.* “I loved to hear him talking about his dreams of a dress drawn with one line.” Long may his dreams live.\n\n*The lying in state will be held at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 in Rome on January 21 and 22, and a funeral will take place on January 23 at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome, at 11 am.*\n\n![Valentinos zebrastamped calfskin blazer](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5af84874650ab51914fb\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\n“Incisively black-and-white with a crunch of jet and strass-fumée embroidery” is how *Vogue* described Valentino’s zebra-stamped calfskin blazer.Photographed by Leombruno-Bodi , *Vogue,* March 15, 1963\n\n![Princess Luciana Pignatelli in Valentino](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5af8157b810986b9c4d4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/002-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPrincess Luciana Pignatelli wears an “evening coat *folie* in white ostrich, white mink—most glorious way to arrive at a party since sedan-chairs went out. By Valentino, it opens over his long bias-cut white crepe dress.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* November 15, 1964\n\n![Valentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Littas apartment in Rome.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afc2d8fce43659028d6\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/003-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nValentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Litta’s apartment in Rome.Photographed by David Bailey, *Vogue,* April 1965\n\n![Marisa Berenson in Valentino in Capri](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afa2d8fce43659028d4\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/006-19680101-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nMarisa Berenson takes in the view of Capri from the rooftop of Veneiro Colasanti and John Moore’s Studio wearing a stunning Valentino look: “white silk branching out into a thousand red leaves and unleashing a great panel train over red crepe pants.”Photographed by Arnaud de Rosnay, *Vogue,* January 1, 1968\n\n![Valentino's white on white designs photographed in Cy Twombly's apartment](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afab73c151a2ccf0787\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/007-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPhotographed in Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome, “Valentino’s white—the talk of Europe. The cleanliness and distinction of his crisp white, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all, trimumphs,” reported *Vogue,* “for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become an idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury….”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* March 15, 1968\n\n![Photographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left Madame...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afcbf06ee05c156f164\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/008-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPhotographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left, Madame Philippe Leroy and Jean Claude de Luca in black velvet, and at right, the designer’s “Delft porcelain showstoppers …sensational in their silk luxuriousness.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* September 15, 1968\n\n![Ann Turkel wears Valentinos “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afb03e1bf6bac9a721d\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/010-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nAnn Turkel wears Valentino’s “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white organdie flamenco flounces.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, *Vogue,* March 15, 1969\n\n![Claudia Cardinale in Valentino](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afc524dcd1b9bd2e613\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/011-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nClaudia Cardinale in Valentino’s “tiers and tiers of clean white organza floating over languorous coral-silk pants.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, *Vogue,* April 1, 1969\n\n![Verushcka in Valentinos sashed blueandwhite jumpsuit](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afd2d8fce43659028d8\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/013-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nThe sun sets in the Piazza di San Giorgio al Velabro and Verushcka is ready for the evening’s festivities in Valentino’s sashed blue-and-white jumpsuit .Photographed by Franco Rubartelli, *Vogue,* April 1, 1969\n\n![Valentino belted beige wool poncho with flings of lynx and a short charmeusecollared wool dress underneath](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afeb73c151a2ccf0789\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/015-19690915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\n“Valentino does it again—and again! One great look—one great poncho—after another, Like this long, belted beige wool with flings of lynx and a short charmeuse-collared wool dress underneath.”Photographed by Gianpaolo Barbieri, *Vogue,* September 15, 1969\n\n![Valentino's doublefaced wool coat printed in navyandwhite Positano foulard designs](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5afe4874650ab51914fd\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/017-19700315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPhotographed by the Arch of Constantine, “one of the most beautiful coats you could own: double-faced wool printed in navy-and-white Positano foulard designs, the scarf patterns laid side by side and row upon row with absolute perfection. Belted in navy, buttoned in navy, and everything else in navy to match—the large straw hat, the stockings, the shoes.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, *Vogue,* March 15, 1970\n\n![Tailoring with panache from Valentino.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b0009db6f15947b5e28\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/021-19710915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nTailoring, with panache, from Valentino.Photographed by Helmut Newton, *Vogue,* September 15, 1971\n\n![Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino a coiffure by Alexandre and a mints worth...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b01c7fb502463a235ae\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/022%252019720115-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nRichard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino, a coiffure by Alexandre, and a mint’s worth of diamonds and emeralds.”Photographed by Cecil Beaton, *Vogue,* January 15, 1972\n\n![“At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory...](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b02b8dc955ffcd2416f\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/023-19720315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\n“At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory chiffon-and-lace chemise; right, a fluttery pink silk rose at the waist of a daring black chiffon dress.”Photographed by Helmut Newton, *Vogue,* Match 15, 1972\n\n![Paulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino's maillotinspired bodycon dresses.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b054874650ab51914ff\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/029-19850301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nPaulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino’s maillot-inspired body-con dresses.Photographed by Irving Penn, *Vogue,* March 1985\n\n![In white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy in Valentino Haute Couture displays a “daring dcolletage.”](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b07eb3f6109c5bfdb4d\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/037-20090501valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nIn white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy, in Valentino Haute Couture, displays a “daring décolletage.”Photographed by Steven Mesiel , *Vogue,* October 1998\n\n![Maggie Rizer in Valentino Haute Couture Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b07c7fb502463a235b2\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/038-20021001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nMaggie Rizer vamps in an inky look from a Valentino Haute Couture collection that was “all about temptation.” Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.Photographed by Craig McDean, *Vogue,* October 2002\n\n![Gisele Bündchen in goddess mode the Valentino way Chiffon top pants and shorts.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b08eb3f6109c5bfdb4f\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/040-20030301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nGisele Bündchen in goddess mode, the Valentino way: Chiffon top, pants, and shorts.Photographed by Steven Klein, *Vogue,* March 2003\n\n![Cameron Diazin a tafetta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b08b67ab420ab2fca3a\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/041-20030501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nCameron Diaz gets carried away in a taffeta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, *Vogue,* May 2003\n\n![Nicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designers 2004 Haute Couture collection.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b081157d91a1149c543\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/042-20040501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nNicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designer’s 2004 Haute Couture collection.Photographed by Irving Penn, *Vogue,* May 2004\n\n![Jennie Runk in Valentino red.](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b08524dcd1b9bd2e619\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/043-20050401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nJennie Runk in Valentino red.Photographed by Steven Meisel, *Vogue,* April 2005\n\n![Image may contain Fashion Evening Dress Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Necklace Jewelry Accessories and Accessory](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b09b8dc955ffcd24173\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/046-20060301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nLiya Kebede in Valentino’s black silk and white lace dress.Photographed by Arthur Elgort, *Vogue,* March 2006\n\n![Caroline Trentini in Valentinos Goyaesque 1985 dress](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b0a4874650ab5191503\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/047-20070301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg)\n\nCaroline Trentini in “Valentino’s Goya-esque 1985 dress with a feathered lace back, shirred velvet waist, gathered duchesse satin skirt, and tulle train is ‘only about making a woman look and feel beautiful.’ ”Photographed by Irving Penn, *Vogue,* March 2007\n\n![Image may contain Cushion Pillow Human Person Furniture Interior Design Indoors Couch Clothing Apparel and Bed](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/5a4d5b0a7696061b846d2eaf\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/19700415-valentino-garavani.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani.Photographed by Horst P. Horst, *Vogue,* April 15, 1970\n\n![Image may contain Gwyneth Paltrow Tie Accessories Accessory Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel Human and Person](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d090bc863be215bd71e5\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-1360328.jpg)\n\nGwyneth Paltrow and Valentino Garavani at the Venice Film Festival, 2002. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Evening Dress Fashion Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Human Person Giancarlo Giammetti and Premiere](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d0918082af0e9a58a15a\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-2308645.jpg)\n\nMarie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001.Photo: Evan Agostini \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Halle Berry Fashion Premiere Human Person Red Carpet Red Carpet Premiere Footwear and Clothing](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d091422e0f6c847baafa\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-692493.jpg)\n\nHalle Berry in Valentino at the Golden Globe Awards, 2002.Photo: Vince Bucci \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel and Oprah Winfrey](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d092f3fef34108819050\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-97324689.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani and and Oprah Winfrey, 1996.Photo: Richard Corkery \/ NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Human Person Fashion Home Decor Clothing Apparel and Premiere](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d09215d980ff4be4f109\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-75298985.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani, 1970.Photo: Ron Galella \/ Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Cate Blanchett Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown and Robe](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d0928082af0e9a58a15c\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-52251521.jpg)\n\nOscar winner Cate Blanchett in Valentino, 2005.Photo: Kevin Winter \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Anne Hathaway Human Person Red Carpet Fashion Red Carpet Premiere Premiere Tie and Accessories](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d093bc863be215bd71e7\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-109477604.jpg)\n\nAnne Hathaway and Valentino Garavani at the Oscars, 2011.Photo: John Shearer \/ Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Julia Roberts Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown Robe Plant and Flower](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d094422e0f6c847baafc\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-529540690.jpg)\n\nOscar-winner Julia Roberts in Valentino, 2001.Photo: Frank Trapper \/ Corbis via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Ben Affleck Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Fashion Premiere Suit Coat and Clothing](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d094f9e3334bcad92ab3\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-529565714.jpg)\n\nJennifer Lopez, in Valentino, with Ben Affleck at the Academy Awards, 2003.Photo: Frank Trapper \/ Corbis via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Human Person Dance Pose Leisure Activities Sunglasses Accessories Accessory Footwear and Clothing](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d096679b08e243df5df5\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-515395308.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani and Jacqueline Kennedy, 1970.Photo: Bettmann\n\n![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Clothing Apparel Suit Coat Overcoat Animal Dog Mammal Pet and Canine](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d0976ee5fc9c17db101d\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-1155592948.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani and pugs, 1990s.Photo: Archivio APG \/ Mondadori via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Human Person Interior Design Indoors Stage Architecture Building Clothing and Apparel](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d09bf366dc562f987089\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-850704188.jpg)\n\nValentino Garavani in Rome, 1991.Photo: Gianni Giansanti \/ Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images\n\n![Image may contain Halle Berry Clothing Apparel Human Person Fashion Evening Dress Gown Robe and Premiere](https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6176d4dbf3fef34108819054\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/GettyImages-156071795.jpg)\n\nGolden Globe winner Halle Berry in Valentino, 2000.Photo: Ron Galella \/ Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images","meta_canonical":null}

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URL	https://www.vogue.com/article/valentino-garavani
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Meta Title	Valentino Garavani, Couturier to the Stars, Has Died at 93 \| Vogue
Meta Description	Valentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and celebrities, has died. He was 93.
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Boilerpipe Text	Valentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and stars of the day, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93. With his exacting pattern-making, signature hue of poppy red , and eye for feminine details like bows, ruffles, lace, and embroideries, Valentino was one of the key architects of late 20th century glamour. Val’s Gals, as his coterie was often called, included Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn , and Sophia Loren. Jackie Kennedy wore a white gown of Valentino’s creation for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, and decades later the designer interpreted a mint green gown he had made for the former first lady in 1967 for Jennifer Lopez’s appearance at the 2003 Oscars. In 2001 Julia Roberts accepted her Best Actress award for Erin Brokovich in a vintage black and white Valentino gown. In 2009, The designer was the subject of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed documentary , Valentino: The Last Emperor , which followed the designer, his career-long business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, and his entourage in the two years leading up to his retirement. In the film, Valentino tells a reporter: “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful,” a 10-word summation of the aesthetic that had turned him into a multimillionaire. In the years after his retirement in 2008, which was feted with a three-day extravaganza in Rome, Valentino hardly faded from public view. He could be found many seasons sitting in the front row of Paris’s Hotel de Rothschild, taking in the latest collection from creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, the latter of whom decamped for Christian Dior in 2016. Valentino was so moved by Piccioli’s haute couture collection for fall 2018 that he stood for an ovation, tears rolling down his tanned cheeks. When he wasn’t cheering on the designers who inherited his label, Garavani could often be seen on Instagram, hosting glamorous parties at his French estate Wideville or on his yacht TM Blue One, rarely without his brood of pugs in tow. “My last memory of Valentino is watching him delighting in Alessandro Michele’s first collection for Valentino,” says Anna Wintour, Global Chief Content Officer and Artistic Director at Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue . “This was over FaceTime on Giancarlo Giammetti’s phone. Delight is a word I associate so completely with Valentino. He was always the best company, always a perfect host. He adored his extraordinary clients and led the life they did—and so he totally understood their needs. His manners were impeccable. He was breathtakingly polite, admiring, and generous. Yes, he was of a certain world, but not boxed in by it. His clothes were effortless, feminine, and delightful (that word again). And in all things he was guided, protected, and adored by his lifelong friend and partner, Giancarlo—a true keeper of the flame.” Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Voghera, Italy, on May 11, 1932. He decided on design as his métier early on and enrolled at the Accademia dell’Arte in Milan where he studied fashion and French. Pursuing his ambition, at 17 Garavani moved to Paris to attend the École des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Post-studies, he assisted Jean Dessés, a Greek designer known for his pleated evening dresses, and Guy Laroche, a Frenchman with a sportier aesthetic. After a year spent working alongside the noted beauty Princess Irene Galitzine, who popularized elegant evening pajamas, Garavani set out on his own with the backing of his father and a family friend, establishing his maison, circa 1959, on Rome’s Via Condotti. “It was une maison de couture, ” explained Giammetti—who met Garavani soon after—in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I say it in French because it was very much on the line of what he had seen in Paris… Everything was very grand already. Models flew from Paris for his first show. Italian fashion was very limited at the time. There were a few good designers, but just a few.” With Giammetti at his side, Valentino became one of the very best, despite the fact that within a year he was facing bankruptcy. He blamed his “champagne tastes,” and the pair soon vacated Via Condotti and moved to a smaller space in a 16th-century palazzo on the Via Gregoriana. The press, initially interested in Valentino as a budding talent and handsome new face, soon had more incentive to pay attention to this young designer: his celebrity pull. In 1961, the violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor, in town to shoot Cleopatra , chose a white haute couture column by Valentino to wear to the premiere of Spartacus. The designer’s All White couture collection of 1968 is the one that set him solidly in the firmature of Italian design. Vogue declared it “the talk of Europe,” and waxed lyrical about “the cleanliness and distinction of his crisp whites, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all triumphs for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become the idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury.” Some of these marvels were photographed by the magazine in Cy Twombly’s Roman apartment on Marisa Berenson, who, as a granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli, qualified as fashion royalty. Despite the white collection’s historical importance, the designer will forever be associated with the color red, and not just any shade, but a sparkling crisp Valentino red that speaks of Italy, passion, religion, lust, and love. “Everything,” he once said, “is made to attract, seduce, entrance.” As alluring a woman wearing Valentino might be, however, she was above all and unmistakably a lady. There is a certain polish and formality to Valentino’s work that speaks to an earlier age of glamour and the beginnings of the jet set, which is now a thing of the past. The dream of the good life never gets old, however, and the lure of the brand was, in part, its link to the lives of “the rich and famous,” an A-list crowd of which Valentino was a member. It should be noted that formality is not synonymous with modesty; evening dresses with lingerie touches were a part of Garavani’s repertoire, and he appreciated a lovely decolletage. Also abs: dresses with tastefully placed cut-outs were another specialty that appealed to the fit and fabulous. Casual was always a relative term in Valentino’s world—the designer even looked put-together in that famous paparazzi pic taken in Capri in 1970 with a barefoot Jackie O. His signature look was a perfect coif, a rich tan, and a suit. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who joined the house in 2008 (and who dared to wear flip-flops to the office) remembers that the air conditioning was on full blast in the offices all summer so that the staff could wear suits. “I was happy that I arrived there when I was all grown up,” Piccioli told Vogue in 2019. “Valentino was formal—very, very formal. There was a ritual, and I liked that.” Although Valentino was producing ready-to-wear from the category’s earliest days in the 1960s it was elevated rather than laid-back. “If anyone can approximate haute couture detailing in ready-to-wear, it is he, Vogue critic Sarah Mower noted decades on. Though Garavani has expressed his dislike for 1980s fashions, Vogue wrote that the business soared at the time; reporting that “in 1986, Valentino was Italy’s top fashion exporter, shipping some $385 million that year.” If the Valentino aesthetic was the polar opposite of grunge that dominated so much of the ’90s, it was extremely relevant to the celebrity culture that started to take off in that decade. This shift benefited “Va-Va” greatly, and he racked up major red-carpet credits. Like the celebrities he dressed, Garavani was himself a star. As Piccioli once put it: “Valentino was the brand himself.” And the designer lived the life he designed for. Long after his retirement, Garavani remained an arbiter of taste and decorum and a paradigm of success. He lived his life in pursuit of beauty. “I loved working with him,” Piccioli told Vogue. “I loved to hear him talking about his dreams of a dress drawn with one line.” Long may his dreams live. The lying in state will be held at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 in Rome on January 21 and 22, and a funeral will take place on January 23 at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome, at 11 am. “Incisively black-and-white with a crunch of jet and strass-fumée embroidery” is how Vogue described Valentino’s zebra-stamped calfskin blazer. Photographed by Leombruno-Bodi , Vogue, March 15, 1963 Princess Luciana Pignatelli wears an “evening coat folie in white ostrich, white mink—most glorious way to arrive at a party since sedan-chairs went out. By Valentino, it opens over his long bias-cut white crepe dress.” Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, November 15, 1964 Valentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Litta’s apartment in Rome. Photographed by David Bailey, Vogue, April 1965 Marisa Berenson takes in the view of Capri from the rooftop of Veneiro Colasanti and John Moore’s Studio wearing a stunning Valentino look: “white silk branching out into a thousand red leaves and unleashing a great panel train over red crepe pants.” Photographed by Arnaud de Rosnay, Vogue, January 1, 1968 Photographed in Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome, “Valentino’s white—the talk of Europe. The cleanliness and distinction of his crisp white, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all, trimumphs,” reported Vogue, “for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become an idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury….” Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, March 15, 1968 Photographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left, Madame Philippe Leroy and Jean Claude de Luca in black velvet, and at right, the designer’s “Delft porcelain showstoppers …sensational in their silk luxuriousness.” Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, September 15, 1968 Ann Turkel wears Valentino’s “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white organdie flamenco flounces.” Photographed by Gianni Penati, Vogue, March 15, 1969 Claudia Cardinale in Valentino’s “tiers and tiers of clean white organza floating over languorous coral-silk pants.” Photographed by Gianni Penati, Vogue, April 1, 1969 The sun sets in the Piazza di San Giorgio al Velabro and Verushcka is ready for the evening’s festivities in Valentino’s sashed blue-and-white jumpsuit . Photographed by Franco Rubartelli, Vogue, April 1, 1969 “Valentino does it again—and again! One great look—one great poncho—after another, Like this long, belted beige wool with flings of lynx and a short charmeuse-collared wool dress underneath.” Photographed by Gianpaolo Barbieri, Vogue, September 15, 1969 Photographed by the Arch of Constantine, “one of the most beautiful coats you could own: double-faced wool printed in navy-and-white Positano foulard designs, the scarf patterns laid side by side and row upon row with absolute perfection. Belted in navy, buttoned in navy, and everything else in navy to match—the large straw hat, the stockings, the shoes.” Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, March 15, 1970 Tailoring, with panache, from Valentino. Photographed by Helmut Newton, Vogue, September 15, 1971 Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino, a coiffure by Alexandre, and a mint’s worth of diamonds and emeralds.” Photographed by Cecil Beaton, Vogue, January 15, 1972 “At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory chiffon-and-lace chemise; right, a fluttery pink silk rose at the waist of a daring black chiffon dress.” Photographed by Helmut Newton, Vogue, Match 15, 1972 Paulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino’s maillot-inspired body-con dresses. Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, March 1985 In white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy, in Valentino Haute Couture, displays a “daring décolletage.” Photographed by Steven Mesiel , Vogue, October 1998 Maggie Rizer vamps in an inky look from a Valentino Haute Couture collection that was “all about temptation.” Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe. Photographed by Craig McDean, Vogue, October 2002 Gisele Bündchen in goddess mode, the Valentino way: Chiffon top, pants, and shorts. Photographed by Steven Klein, Vogue, March 2003 Cameron Diaz gets carried away in a taffeta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2003 Nicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designer’s 2004 Haute Couture collection. Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, May 2004 Jennie Runk in Valentino red. Photographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, April 2005 Liya Kebede in Valentino’s black silk and white lace dress. Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, March 2006 Caroline Trentini in “Valentino’s Goya-esque 1985 dress with a feathered lace back, shirred velvet waist, gathered duchesse satin skirt, and tulle train is ‘only about making a woman look and feel beautiful.’ ” Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, March 2007 Valentino Garavani. Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, April 15, 1970 Gwyneth Paltrow and Valentino Garavani at the Venice Film Festival, 2002. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images Marie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001. Photo: Evan Agostini / Getty Images Halle Berry in Valentino at the Golden Globe Awards, 2002. Photo: Vince Bucci / Getty Images Valentino Garavani and and Oprah Winfrey, 1996. Photo: Richard Corkery / NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images Valentino Garavani, 1970. Photo: Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images Oscar winner Cate Blanchett in Valentino, 2005. Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images Anne Hathaway and Valentino Garavani at the Oscars, 2011. Photo: John Shearer / Getty Images Oscar-winner Julia Roberts in Valentino, 2001. Photo: Frank Trapper / Corbis via Getty Images Jennifer Lopez, in Valentino, with Ben Affleck at the Academy Awards, 2003. Photo: Frank Trapper / Corbis via Getty Images Valentino Garavani and Jacqueline Kennedy, 1970. Photo: Bettmann Valentino Garavani and pugs, 1990s. Photo: Archivio APG / Mondadori via Getty Images Valentino Garavani in Rome, 1991. Photo: Gianni Giansanti / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Golden Globe winner Halle Berry in Valentino, 2000. Photo: Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Markdown	[Skip to main content](https://www.vogue.com/article/valentino-garavani#main-content) [Your All-Access Pass to Vogue](https://vogue.smart.link/84hdiudhc) [DOWNLOAD NOW](https://vogue.smart.link/84hdiudhc) Menu [FASHION](https://www.vogue.com/fashion) [RUNWAY](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows) [SHOPPING](https://www.vogue.com/shopping) [BEAUTY](https://www.vogue.com/beauty) [CULTURE](https://www.vogue.com/culture) [LIVING](https://www.vogue.com/living) [VOGUE BUSINESS](https://www.vogue.com/business) [TEEN VOGUE](https://www.teenvogue.com/) [FASHION](https://www.vogue.com/fashion) [Celebrity Style](https://www.vogue.com/fashion/celebrity-style)[Street Style](https://www.vogue.com/fashion/street-style)[Models](https://www.vogue.com/fashion/models)[Designers](https://www.vogue.com/fashion/designers)[Trends](https://www.vogue.com/fashion/trends)[Sustainability](https://www.vogue.com/fashion/sustainability)[All Fashion](https://www.vogue.com/fashion) [RUNWAY](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows) [SHOPPING](https://www.vogue.com/shopping) [BEAUTY](https://www.vogue.com/beauty) [Celebrity Beauty](https://www.vogue.com/beauty/celebrity-beauty)[Hair](https://www.vogue.com/beauty/hair)[Makeup](https://www.vogue.com/beauty/makeup)[Nails](https://www.vogue.com/beauty/nails)[Wellness](https://www.vogue.com/beauty/health-and-fitness)[Skin](https://www.vogue.com/beauty/skin)[All Beauty](https://www.vogue.com/beauty) [CULTURE](https://www.vogue.com/culture) [Opinion](https://www.vogue.com/culture/opinion)[TV & Movies](https://www.vogue.com/culture/tv-and-movies)[Music](https://www.vogue.com/culture/music)[Arts](https://www.vogue.com/culture/arts)[Books](https://www.vogue.com/culture/books)[News](https://www.vogue.com/culture/news)[Sports](https://www.vogue.com/culture/sports)[All Culture](https://www.vogue.com/culture) [LIVING](https://www.vogue.com/living) [Homes](https://www.vogue.com/living/homes)[Travel](https://www.vogue.com/living/travel)[Food](https://www.vogue.com/living/food)[Parties](https://www.vogue.com/living/parties)[Royals](https://www.vogue.com/living/royals)[All Living](https://www.vogue.com/living) [WEDDINGS](https://www.vogue.com/weddings) [Wedding Inspiration](https://www.vogue.com/tag/misc/real-weddings)[Planning & Advice](https://www.vogue.com/tag/misc/wedding-planning-and-advice)[For Wedding Guests](https://www.vogue.com/tag/misc/wedding-guest)[The Bridal Shop](https://www.vogue.com/article/best-wedding-dresses)[All Weddings](https://www.vogue.com/weddings) [VOGUE BUSINESS](https://www.vogue.com/business) [Technology](https://www.vogue.com/business/technology)[Sustainability](http://www.vogue.com/business/sustainability)[Fashion](https://www.vogue.com/business/fashion)[Retail](https://www.vogue.com/business/consumers)[Companies](https://www.vogue.com/business/companies)[Beauty](https://www.vogue.com/business/beauty)[Events](https://www.vogue.com/business/events)[Member Benefits](https://www.vogue.com/business/member-benefits)[Executive Reports](https://www.vogue.com/business/executive-reports) [VIDEO](https://www.vogue.com/video) [PHOTOVOGUE](https://www.vogue.com/photovogue) MORE [NEWSLETTERS](https://www.vogue.com/newsletters?sourceCode=hamburgernav) [PODCAST](https://www.vogue.com/podcast/the-run-through) [MAGAZINE](https://www.vogue.com/magazine) [PROJECTS](https://www.vogue.com/tag/misc/special-projects) [VOGUE ARCHIVE](http://login.voguearchive.com/) [TEEN VOGUE](https://www.teenvogue.com/) [Search](https://www.vogue.com/search) [Contact Us](https://www.vogue.com/contact) [About Vogue](https://www.vogue.com/about-us) [Runway](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows) # Valentino Garavani, Couturier to the Stars, Has Died at 93 By [Laird Borrelli-Persson](https://www.vogue.com/contributor/laird-borrelli-persson) January 19, 2026 ![Image may contain Evening Dress Fashion Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Human Person Giancarlo Giammetti and Premiere](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d0918082af0e9a58a15a/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-2308645.jpg) Marie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001.Photo: Evan Agostini / Getty Images Save this story Save this story Valentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and stars of the day, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93. With his exacting pattern-making, signature hue of [poppy red](https://www.vogue.com/article/happy-90-birthday-valentino-garavani-a-red-dress-celebration), and eye for feminine details like bows, ruffles, lace, and embroideries, Valentino was one of the key architects of late 20th century glamour. Val’s Gals, as his coterie was often called, included Elizabeth Taylor, [Audrey Hepburn](https://www.vogue.com/tag/celebrity/audrey-hepburn), and Sophia Loren. Jackie Kennedy wore a white gown of Valentino’s creation for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, and decades later the designer interpreted a mint green gown he had made for the former first lady in 1967 for Jennifer Lopez’s appearance at the 2003 Oscars. In 2001 Julia Roberts accepted her Best Actress award for Erin Brokovich in a vintage black and white Valentino gown. In 2009, The designer was the subject of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed [documentary](https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/best-fashion-documentaries), Valentino: The Last Emperor, which followed the designer, his career-long business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, and his entourage in the two years leading up to his retirement. In the film, Valentino tells a reporter: “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful,” a 10-word summation of the aesthetic that had turned him into a multimillionaire. In the years after his retirement in 2008, which was feted with a three-day extravaganza in Rome, Valentino hardly faded from public view. He could be found many seasons sitting in the front row of Paris’s Hotel de Rothschild, taking in the latest collection from creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, the latter of whom [decamped for Christian Dior](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2017-ready-to-wear/christian-dior) in 2016. Valentino was so moved by Piccioli’s haute couture collection for [fall 2018](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2018-couture/valentino) that he stood for an ovation, tears rolling down his tanned cheeks. When he wasn’t cheering on the designers who inherited his label, Garavani could often be seen on Instagram, hosting glamorous parties at his French estate Wideville or on his yacht TM Blue One, rarely without his brood of pugs in tow. “My last memory of Valentino is watching him delighting in Alessandro Michele’s first collection for Valentino,” says Anna Wintour, Global Chief Content Officer and Artistic Director at Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue. “This was over FaceTime on Giancarlo Giammetti’s phone. Delight is a word I associate so completely with Valentino. He was always the best company, always a perfect host. He adored his extraordinary clients and led the life they did—and so he totally understood their needs. His manners were impeccable. He was breathtakingly polite, admiring, and generous. Yes, he was of a certain world, but not boxed in by it. His clothes were effortless, feminine, and delightful (that word again). And in all things he was guided, protected, and adored by his lifelong friend and partner, Giancarlo—a true keeper of the flame.” Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Voghera, Italy, on May 11, 1932. He decided on design as his métier early on and enrolled at the Accademia dell’Arte in Milan where he studied fashion and French. Pursuing his ambition, at 17 Garavani moved to Paris to attend the École des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Post-studies, he assisted Jean Dessés, a Greek designer known for his pleated evening dresses, and Guy Laroche, a Frenchman with a sportier aesthetic. After a year spent working alongside the noted beauty Princess Irene Galitzine, who popularized elegant evening pajamas, Garavani set out on his own with the backing of his father and a family friend, establishing his maison, circa 1959, on Rome’s Via Condotti. “It was une maison de couture,” explained Giammetti—who met Garavani soon after—in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I say it in French because it was very much on the line of what he had seen in Paris… Everything was very grand already. Models flew from Paris for his first show. Italian fashion was very limited at the time. There were a few good designers, but just a few.” With Giammetti at his side, Valentino became one of the very best, despite the fact that within a year he was facing bankruptcy. He blamed his “champagne tastes,” and the pair soon vacated Via Condotti and moved to a smaller space in a 16th-century palazzo on the Via Gregoriana. The press, initially interested in Valentino as a budding talent and handsome new face, soon had more incentive to pay attention to this young designer: his celebrity pull. In 1961, the violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor, in town to shoot Cleopatra, chose a white haute couture column by Valentino to wear to the premiere of Spartacus. The designer’s All White couture collection of 1968 is the one that set him solidly in the firmature of Italian design. Vogue declared it “the talk of Europe,” and waxed lyrical about “the cleanliness and distinction of his crisp whites, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all triumphs for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become the idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury.” Some of these marvels were photographed by the magazine in Cy Twombly’s Roman apartment on Marisa Berenson, who, as a granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli, qualified as fashion royalty. Despite the white collection’s historical importance, the designer will forever be associated with the color red, and not just any shade, but a sparkling crisp Valentino red that speaks of Italy, passion, religion, lust, and love. “Everything,” he once said, “is made to attract, seduce, entrance.” As alluring a woman wearing Valentino might be, however, she was above all and unmistakably a lady. There is a certain polish and formality to Valentino’s work that speaks to an earlier age of glamour and the beginnings of the jet set, which is now a thing of the past. The dream of the good life never gets old, however, and the lure of the brand was, in part, its link to the lives of “the rich and famous,” an A-list crowd of which Valentino was a member. It should be noted that formality is not synonymous with modesty; evening dresses with lingerie touches were a part of Garavani’s repertoire, and he appreciated a lovely decolletage. Also abs: dresses with tastefully placed cut-outs were another specialty that appealed to the fit and fabulous. Casual was always a relative term in Valentino’s world—the designer even looked put-together in that famous paparazzi pic taken in Capri in 1970 with a barefoot Jackie O. His signature look was a perfect coif, a rich tan, and a suit. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who joined the house in 2008 (and who dared to wear flip-flops to the office) remembers that the air conditioning was on full blast in the offices all summer so that the staff could wear suits. “I was happy that I arrived there when I was all grown up,” Piccioli told Vogue in 2019. “Valentino was formal—very, very formal. There was a ritual, and I liked that.” Although Valentino was producing ready-to-wear from the category’s earliest days in the 1960s it was elevated rather than laid-back. “If anyone can approximate haute couture detailing in ready-to-wear, it is he, Vogue critic Sarah Mower noted decades on. Though Garavani has expressed his dislike for 1980s fashions, Vogue wrote that the business soared at the time; reporting that “in 1986, Valentino was Italy’s top fashion exporter, shipping some \$385 million that year.” If the Valentino aesthetic was the polar opposite of grunge that dominated so much of the ’90s, it was extremely relevant to the celebrity culture that started to take off in that decade. This shift benefited “Va-Va” greatly, and he racked up major red-carpet credits. Like the celebrities he dressed, Garavani was himself a star. As Piccioli once put it: “Valentino was the brand himself.” And the designer lived the life he designed for. Long after his retirement, Garavani remained an arbiter of taste and decorum and a paradigm of success. He lived his life in pursuit of beauty. “I loved working with him,” Piccioli told Vogue. “I loved to hear him talking about his dreams of a dress drawn with one line.” Long may his dreams live. The lying in state will be held at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 in Rome on January 21 and 22, and a funeral will take place on January 23 at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome, at 11 am. ![Valentinos zebrastamped calfskin blazer](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5af84874650ab51914fb/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) “Incisively black-and-white with a crunch of jet and strass-fumée embroidery” is how Vogue described Valentino’s zebra-stamped calfskin blazer.Photographed by Leombruno-Bodi , Vogue, March 15, 1963 ![Princess Luciana Pignatelli in Valentino](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5af8157b810986b9c4d4/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/002-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Princess Luciana Pignatelli wears an “evening coat folie in white ostrich, white mink—most glorious way to arrive at a party since sedan-chairs went out. By Valentino, it opens over his long bias-cut white crepe dress.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, November 15, 1964 ![Valentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Littas apartment in Rome.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afc2d8fce43659028d6/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/003-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Valentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Litta’s apartment in Rome.Photographed by David Bailey, Vogue, April 1965 ![Marisa Berenson in Valentino in Capri](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afa2d8fce43659028d4/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/006-19680101-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Marisa Berenson takes in the view of Capri from the rooftop of Veneiro Colasanti and John Moore’s Studio wearing a stunning Valentino look: “white silk branching out into a thousand red leaves and unleashing a great panel train over red crepe pants.”Photographed by Arnaud de Rosnay, Vogue, January 1, 1968 ![Valentino's white on white designs photographed in Cy Twombly's apartment](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afab73c151a2ccf0787/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/007-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Photographed in Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome, “Valentino’s white—the talk of Europe. The cleanliness and distinction of his crisp white, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all, trimumphs,” reported Vogue, “for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become an idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury….”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, March 15, 1968 ![Photographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left Madame...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afcbf06ee05c156f164/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/008-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Photographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left, Madame Philippe Leroy and Jean Claude de Luca in black velvet, and at right, the designer’s “Delft porcelain showstoppers …sensational in their silk luxuriousness.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, September 15, 1968 ![Ann Turkel wears Valentinos “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afb03e1bf6bac9a721d/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/010-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Ann Turkel wears Valentino’s “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white organdie flamenco flounces.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, Vogue, March 15, 1969 ![Claudia Cardinale in Valentino](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afc524dcd1b9bd2e613/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/011-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Claudia Cardinale in Valentino’s “tiers and tiers of clean white organza floating over languorous coral-silk pants.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, Vogue, April 1, 1969 ![Verushcka in Valentinos sashed blueandwhite jumpsuit](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afd2d8fce43659028d8/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/013-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) The sun sets in the Piazza di San Giorgio al Velabro and Verushcka is ready for the evening’s festivities in Valentino’s sashed blue-and-white jumpsuit .Photographed by Franco Rubartelli, Vogue, April 1, 1969 ![Valentino belted beige wool poncho with flings of lynx and a short charmeusecollared wool dress underneath](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afeb73c151a2ccf0789/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/015-19690915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) “Valentino does it again—and again! One great look—one great poncho—after another, Like this long, belted beige wool with flings of lynx and a short charmeuse-collared wool dress underneath.”Photographed by Gianpaolo Barbieri, Vogue, September 15, 1969 ![Valentino's doublefaced wool coat printed in navyandwhite Positano foulard designs](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afe4874650ab51914fd/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/017-19700315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Photographed by the Arch of Constantine, “one of the most beautiful coats you could own: double-faced wool printed in navy-and-white Positano foulard designs, the scarf patterns laid side by side and row upon row with absolute perfection. Belted in navy, buttoned in navy, and everything else in navy to match—the large straw hat, the stockings, the shoes.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, March 15, 1970 ![Tailoring with panache from Valentino.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b0009db6f15947b5e28/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/021-19710915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Tailoring, with panache, from Valentino.Photographed by Helmut Newton, Vogue, September 15, 1971 ![Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino a coiffure by Alexandre and a mints worth...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b01c7fb502463a235ae/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/022%252019720115-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino, a coiffure by Alexandre, and a mint’s worth of diamonds and emeralds.”Photographed by Cecil Beaton, Vogue, January 15, 1972 ![“At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b02b8dc955ffcd2416f/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/023-19720315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) “At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory chiffon-and-lace chemise; right, a fluttery pink silk rose at the waist of a daring black chiffon dress.”Photographed by Helmut Newton, Vogue, Match 15, 1972 ![Paulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino's maillotinspired bodycon dresses.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b054874650ab51914ff/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/029-19850301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Paulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino’s maillot-inspired body-con dresses.Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, March 1985 ![In white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy in Valentino Haute Couture displays a “daring dcolletage.”](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b07eb3f6109c5bfdb4d/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/037-20090501valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) In white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy, in Valentino Haute Couture, displays a “daring décolletage.”Photographed by Steven Mesiel , Vogue, October 1998 ![Maggie Rizer in Valentino Haute Couture Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b07c7fb502463a235b2/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/038-20021001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Maggie Rizer vamps in an inky look from a Valentino Haute Couture collection that was “all about temptation.” Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.Photographed by Craig McDean, Vogue, October 2002 ![Gisele Bündchen in goddess mode the Valentino way Chiffon top pants and shorts.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b08eb3f6109c5bfdb4f/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/040-20030301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Gisele Bündchen in goddess mode, the Valentino way: Chiffon top, pants, and shorts.Photographed by Steven Klein, Vogue, March 2003 ![Cameron Diazin a tafetta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b08b67ab420ab2fca3a/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/041-20030501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Cameron Diaz gets carried away in a taffeta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2003 ![Nicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designers 2004 Haute Couture collection.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b081157d91a1149c543/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/042-20040501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Nicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designer’s 2004 Haute Couture collection.Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, May 2004 ![Jennie Runk in Valentino red.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b08524dcd1b9bd2e619/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/043-20050401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Jennie Runk in Valentino red.Photographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, April 2005 ![Image may contain Fashion Evening Dress Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Necklace Jewelry Accessories and Accessory](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b09b8dc955ffcd24173/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/046-20060301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Liya Kebede in Valentino’s black silk and white lace dress.Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, March 2006 ![Caroline Trentini in Valentinos Goyaesque 1985 dress](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b0a4874650ab5191503/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/047-20070301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Caroline Trentini in “Valentino’s Goya-esque 1985 dress with a feathered lace back, shirred velvet waist, gathered duchesse satin skirt, and tulle train is ‘only about making a woman look and feel beautiful.’ ”Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, March 2007 ![Image may contain Cushion Pillow Human Person Furniture Interior Design Indoors Couch Clothing Apparel and Bed](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b0a7696061b846d2eaf/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/19700415-valentino-garavani.jpg) Valentino Garavani.Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, April 15, 1970 ![Image may contain Gwyneth Paltrow Tie Accessories Accessory Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel Human and Person](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d090bc863be215bd71e5/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-1360328.jpg) Gwyneth Paltrow and Valentino Garavani at the Venice Film Festival, 2002. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images ![Image may contain Evening Dress Fashion Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Human Person Giancarlo Giammetti and Premiere](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d0918082af0e9a58a15a/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-2308645.jpg) Marie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001.Photo: Evan Agostini / Getty Images ![Image may contain Halle Berry Fashion Premiere Human Person Red Carpet Red Carpet Premiere Footwear and Clothing](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d091422e0f6c847baafa/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-692493.jpg) Halle Berry in Valentino at the Golden Globe Awards, 2002.Photo: Vince Bucci / Getty Images ![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel and Oprah Winfrey](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d092f3fef34108819050/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-97324689.jpg) Valentino Garavani and and Oprah Winfrey, 1996.Photo: Richard Corkery / NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images ![Image may contain Human Person Fashion Home Decor Clothing Apparel and Premiere](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d09215d980ff4be4f109/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-75298985.jpg) Valentino Garavani, 1970.Photo: Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images ![Image may contain Cate Blanchett Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown and Robe](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d0928082af0e9a58a15c/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-52251521.jpg) Oscar winner Cate Blanchett in Valentino, 2005.Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images ![Image may contain Anne Hathaway Human Person Red Carpet Fashion Red Carpet Premiere Premiere Tie and Accessories](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d093bc863be215bd71e7/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-109477604.jpg) Anne Hathaway and Valentino Garavani at the Oscars, 2011.Photo: John Shearer / Getty Images ![Image may contain Julia Roberts Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown Robe Plant and Flower](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d094422e0f6c847baafc/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-529540690.jpg) Oscar-winner Julia Roberts in Valentino, 2001.Photo: Frank Trapper / Corbis via Getty Images ![Image may contain Ben Affleck Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Fashion Premiere Suit Coat and Clothing](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d094f9e3334bcad92ab3/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-529565714.jpg) Jennifer Lopez, in Valentino, with Ben Affleck at the Academy Awards, 2003.Photo: Frank Trapper / Corbis via Getty Images ![Image may contain Human Person Dance Pose Leisure Activities Sunglasses Accessories Accessory Footwear and Clothing](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d096679b08e243df5df5/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-515395308.jpg) Valentino Garavani and Jacqueline Kennedy, 1970.Photo: Bettmann ![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Clothing Apparel Suit Coat Overcoat Animal Dog Mammal Pet and Canine](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d0976ee5fc9c17db101d/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-1155592948.jpg) Valentino Garavani and pugs, 1990s.Photo: Archivio APG / Mondadori via Getty Images ![Image may contain Human Person Interior Design Indoors Stage Architecture Building Clothing and Apparel](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d09bf366dc562f987089/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-850704188.jpg) Valentino Garavani in Rome, 1991.Photo: Gianni Giansanti / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images ![Image may contain Halle Berry Clothing Apparel Human Person Fashion Evening Dress Gown Robe and Premiere](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d4dbf3fef34108819054/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-156071795.jpg) Golden Globe winner Halle Berry in Valentino, 2000.Photo: Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images [![](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/58584a9944b5d45318dc955c/1:1/w_90%2Cc_limit/Laird-Borrelli-Persson.jpg)](https://www.vogue.com/contributor/laird-borrelli-persson) Christian Lacroix is Laird Borrelli-Persson’s fashion raison d’etre; the way he combined romance and historicism set her on the path she is following today. Borrelli-Persson studied literature at Boston College, spending her junior year abroad at Oxford, where she added some art history. After graduation she moved to New York to intern ... 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Readable Markdown	Valentino Garavani, the Roman couturier who launched his label in 1960 and found worldwide fame dressing European royals, American first ladies, and stars of the day, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93. With his exacting pattern-making, signature hue of [poppy red](https://www.vogue.com/article/happy-90-birthday-valentino-garavani-a-red-dress-celebration), and eye for feminine details like bows, ruffles, lace, and embroideries, Valentino was one of the key architects of late 20th century glamour. Val’s Gals, as his coterie was often called, included Elizabeth Taylor, [Audrey Hepburn](https://www.vogue.com/tag/celebrity/audrey-hepburn), and Sophia Loren. Jackie Kennedy wore a white gown of Valentino’s creation for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, and decades later the designer interpreted a mint green gown he had made for the former first lady in 1967 for Jennifer Lopez’s appearance at the 2003 Oscars. In 2001 Julia Roberts accepted her Best Actress award for Erin Brokovich in a vintage black and white Valentino gown. In 2009, The designer was the subject of the Matt Tyrnauer-directed [documentary](https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/best-fashion-documentaries), Valentino: The Last Emperor, which followed the designer, his career-long business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, and his entourage in the two years leading up to his retirement. In the film, Valentino tells a reporter: “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful,” a 10-word summation of the aesthetic that had turned him into a multimillionaire. In the years after his retirement in 2008, which was feted with a three-day extravaganza in Rome, Valentino hardly faded from public view. He could be found many seasons sitting in the front row of Paris’s Hotel de Rothschild, taking in the latest collection from creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri, the latter of whom [decamped for Christian Dior](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2017-ready-to-wear/christian-dior) in 2016. Valentino was so moved by Piccioli’s haute couture collection for [fall 2018](https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2018-couture/valentino) that he stood for an ovation, tears rolling down his tanned cheeks. When he wasn’t cheering on the designers who inherited his label, Garavani could often be seen on Instagram, hosting glamorous parties at his French estate Wideville or on his yacht TM Blue One, rarely without his brood of pugs in tow. “My last memory of Valentino is watching him delighting in Alessandro Michele’s first collection for Valentino,” says Anna Wintour, Global Chief Content Officer and Artistic Director at Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue. “This was over FaceTime on Giancarlo Giammetti’s phone. Delight is a word I associate so completely with Valentino. He was always the best company, always a perfect host. He adored his extraordinary clients and led the life they did—and so he totally understood their needs. His manners were impeccable. He was breathtakingly polite, admiring, and generous. Yes, he was of a certain world, but not boxed in by it. His clothes were effortless, feminine, and delightful (that word again). And in all things he was guided, protected, and adored by his lifelong friend and partner, Giancarlo—a true keeper of the flame.” Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Voghera, Italy, on May 11, 1932. He decided on design as his métier early on and enrolled at the Accademia dell’Arte in Milan where he studied fashion and French. Pursuing his ambition, at 17 Garavani moved to Paris to attend the École des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. Post-studies, he assisted Jean Dessés, a Greek designer known for his pleated evening dresses, and Guy Laroche, a Frenchman with a sportier aesthetic. After a year spent working alongside the noted beauty Princess Irene Galitzine, who popularized elegant evening pajamas, Garavani set out on his own with the backing of his father and a family friend, establishing his maison, circa 1959, on Rome’s Via Condotti. “It was une maison de couture,” explained Giammetti—who met Garavani soon after—in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I say it in French because it was very much on the line of what he had seen in Paris… Everything was very grand already. Models flew from Paris for his first show. Italian fashion was very limited at the time. There were a few good designers, but just a few.” With Giammetti at his side, Valentino became one of the very best, despite the fact that within a year he was facing bankruptcy. He blamed his “champagne tastes,” and the pair soon vacated Via Condotti and moved to a smaller space in a 16th-century palazzo on the Via Gregoriana. The press, initially interested in Valentino as a budding talent and handsome new face, soon had more incentive to pay attention to this young designer: his celebrity pull. In 1961, the violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor, in town to shoot Cleopatra, chose a white haute couture column by Valentino to wear to the premiere of Spartacus. The designer’s All White couture collection of 1968 is the one that set him solidly in the firmature of Italian design. Vogue declared it “the talk of Europe,” and waxed lyrical about “the cleanliness and distinction of his crisp whites, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all triumphs for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become the idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury.” Some of these marvels were photographed by the magazine in Cy Twombly’s Roman apartment on Marisa Berenson, who, as a granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli, qualified as fashion royalty. Despite the white collection’s historical importance, the designer will forever be associated with the color red, and not just any shade, but a sparkling crisp Valentino red that speaks of Italy, passion, religion, lust, and love. “Everything,” he once said, “is made to attract, seduce, entrance.” As alluring a woman wearing Valentino might be, however, she was above all and unmistakably a lady. There is a certain polish and formality to Valentino’s work that speaks to an earlier age of glamour and the beginnings of the jet set, which is now a thing of the past. The dream of the good life never gets old, however, and the lure of the brand was, in part, its link to the lives of “the rich and famous,” an A-list crowd of which Valentino was a member. It should be noted that formality is not synonymous with modesty; evening dresses with lingerie touches were a part of Garavani’s repertoire, and he appreciated a lovely decolletage. Also abs: dresses with tastefully placed cut-outs were another specialty that appealed to the fit and fabulous. Casual was always a relative term in Valentino’s world—the designer even looked put-together in that famous paparazzi pic taken in Capri in 1970 with a barefoot Jackie O. His signature look was a perfect coif, a rich tan, and a suit. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who joined the house in 2008 (and who dared to wear flip-flops to the office) remembers that the air conditioning was on full blast in the offices all summer so that the staff could wear suits. “I was happy that I arrived there when I was all grown up,” Piccioli told Vogue in 2019. “Valentino was formal—very, very formal. There was a ritual, and I liked that.” Although Valentino was producing ready-to-wear from the category’s earliest days in the 1960s it was elevated rather than laid-back. “If anyone can approximate haute couture detailing in ready-to-wear, it is he, Vogue critic Sarah Mower noted decades on. Though Garavani has expressed his dislike for 1980s fashions, Vogue wrote that the business soared at the time; reporting that “in 1986, Valentino was Italy’s top fashion exporter, shipping some \$385 million that year.” If the Valentino aesthetic was the polar opposite of grunge that dominated so much of the ’90s, it was extremely relevant to the celebrity culture that started to take off in that decade. This shift benefited “Va-Va” greatly, and he racked up major red-carpet credits. Like the celebrities he dressed, Garavani was himself a star. As Piccioli once put it: “Valentino was the brand himself.” And the designer lived the life he designed for. Long after his retirement, Garavani remained an arbiter of taste and decorum and a paradigm of success. He lived his life in pursuit of beauty. “I loved working with him,” Piccioli told Vogue. “I loved to hear him talking about his dreams of a dress drawn with one line.” Long may his dreams live. The lying in state will be held at PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli 23 in Rome on January 21 and 22, and a funeral will take place on January 23 at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, in Piazza della Repubblica 8 in Rome, at 11 am. ![Valentinos zebrastamped calfskin blazer](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5af84874650ab51914fb/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) “Incisively black-and-white with a crunch of jet and strass-fumée embroidery” is how Vogue described Valentino’s zebra-stamped calfskin blazer.Photographed by Leombruno-Bodi , Vogue, March 15, 1963 ![Princess Luciana Pignatelli in Valentino](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5af8157b810986b9c4d4/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/002-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Princess Luciana Pignatelli wears an “evening coat folie in white ostrich, white mink—most glorious way to arrive at a party since sedan-chairs went out. By Valentino, it opens over his long bias-cut white crepe dress.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, November 15, 1964 ![Valentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Littas apartment in Rome.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afc2d8fce43659028d6/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/003-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Valentino's “Art Nouveau pyjamas” photographed against the tapestries in Marchesa Valeria Litta’s apartment in Rome.Photographed by David Bailey, Vogue, April 1965 ![Marisa Berenson in Valentino in Capri](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afa2d8fce43659028d4/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/006-19680101-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Marisa Berenson takes in the view of Capri from the rooftop of Veneiro Colasanti and John Moore’s Studio wearing a stunning Valentino look: “white silk branching out into a thousand red leaves and unleashing a great panel train over red crepe pants.”Photographed by Arnaud de Rosnay, Vogue, January 1, 1968 ![Valentino's white on white designs photographed in Cy Twombly's apartment](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afab73c151a2ccf0787/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/007-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Photographed in Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome, “Valentino’s white—the talk of Europe. The cleanliness and distinction of his crisp white, his lacy whites, his soft and creamy whites, all shown together white on white. And all, trimumphs,” reported Vogue, “for the thirty-five-year-old designer who, pouring out all this beauty, romance, and perfection, has become an idol of the young, a new symbol of modern luxury….”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, March 15, 1968 ![Photographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left Madame...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afcbf06ee05c156f164/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/008-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Photographed in the Palazzo Borghese apartment of Agnese Bruguier big evening looks by Valentino. At left, Madame Philippe Leroy and Jean Claude de Luca in black velvet, and at right, the designer’s “Delft porcelain showstoppers …sensational in their silk luxuriousness.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, September 15, 1968 ![Ann Turkel wears Valentinos “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afb03e1bf6bac9a721d/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/010-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Ann Turkel wears Valentino’s “utterly feminine dress…a long black drift of gazar—full of movement—bordered with white organdie flamenco flounces.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, Vogue, March 15, 1969 ![Claudia Cardinale in Valentino](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afc524dcd1b9bd2e613/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/011-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Claudia Cardinale in Valentino’s “tiers and tiers of clean white organza floating over languorous coral-silk pants.”Photographed by Gianni Penati, Vogue, April 1, 1969 ![Verushcka in Valentinos sashed blueandwhite jumpsuit](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afd2d8fce43659028d8/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/013-19690401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) The sun sets in the Piazza di San Giorgio al Velabro and Verushcka is ready for the evening’s festivities in Valentino’s sashed blue-and-white jumpsuit .Photographed by Franco Rubartelli, Vogue, April 1, 1969 ![Valentino belted beige wool poncho with flings of lynx and a short charmeusecollared wool dress underneath](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afeb73c151a2ccf0789/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/015-19690915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) “Valentino does it again—and again! One great look—one great poncho—after another, Like this long, belted beige wool with flings of lynx and a short charmeuse-collared wool dress underneath.”Photographed by Gianpaolo Barbieri, Vogue, September 15, 1969 ![Valentino's doublefaced wool coat printed in navyandwhite Positano foulard designs](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5afe4874650ab51914fd/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/017-19700315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Photographed by the Arch of Constantine, “one of the most beautiful coats you could own: double-faced wool printed in navy-and-white Positano foulard designs, the scarf patterns laid side by side and row upon row with absolute perfection. Belted in navy, buttoned in navy, and everything else in navy to match—the large straw hat, the stockings, the shoes.”Photographed by Henry Clarke, Vogue, March 15, 1970 ![Tailoring with panache from Valentino.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b0009db6f15947b5e28/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/021-19710915-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Tailoring, with panache, from Valentino.Photographed by Helmut Newton, Vogue, September 15, 1971 ![Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino a coiffure by Alexandre and a mints worth...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b01c7fb502463a235ae/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/022%252019720115-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino, a coiffure by Alexandre, and a mint’s worth of diamonds and emeralds.”Photographed by Cecil Beaton, Vogue, January 15, 1972 ![“At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory...](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b02b8dc955ffcd2416f/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/023-19720315-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) “At Valentino—clothes drenched in feminine nuances.... A cascade of luscious pink pearls on a ravishing ivory chiffon-and-lace chemise; right, a fluttery pink silk rose at the waist of a daring black chiffon dress.”Photographed by Helmut Newton, Vogue, Match 15, 1972 ![Paulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino's maillotinspired bodycon dresses.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b054874650ab51914ff/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/029-19850301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Paulina Porizkova makes a splash in in Valentino’s maillot-inspired body-con dresses.Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, March 1985 ![In white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy in Valentino Haute Couture displays a “daring dcolletage.”](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b07eb3f6109c5bfdb4d/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/037-20090501valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) In white velvet and rhinestones Carolyn Murphy, in Valentino Haute Couture, displays a “daring décolletage.”Photographed by Steven Mesiel , Vogue, October 1998 ![Maggie Rizer in Valentino Haute Couture Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b07c7fb502463a235b2/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/038-20021001-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Maggie Rizer vamps in an inky look from a Valentino Haute Couture collection that was “all about temptation.” Embroidered lace top and double organza skirt with ostrich fringe.Photographed by Craig McDean, Vogue, October 2002 ![Gisele Bündchen in goddess mode the Valentino way Chiffon top pants and shorts.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b08eb3f6109c5bfdb4f/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/040-20030301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Gisele Bündchen in goddess mode, the Valentino way: Chiffon top, pants, and shorts.Photographed by Steven Klein, Vogue, March 2003 ![Cameron Diazin a tafetta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b08b67ab420ab2fca3a/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/041-20030501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Cameron Diaz gets carried away in a taffeta Valentino Haute Couture gown with corset bodice.Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, May 2003 ![Nicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designers 2004 Haute Couture collection.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b081157d91a1149c543/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/042-20040501-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Nicole Kidman in a vintage Valentino cape over a white beaded tulle dress from the designer’s 2004 Haute Couture collection.Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, May 2004 ![Jennie Runk in Valentino red.](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b08524dcd1b9bd2e619/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/043-20050401-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Jennie Runk in Valentino red.Photographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, April 2005 ![Image may contain Fashion Evening Dress Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Necklace Jewelry Accessories and Accessory](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b09b8dc955ffcd24173/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/046-20060301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Liya Kebede in Valentino’s black silk and white lace dress.Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, March 2006 ![Caroline Trentini in Valentinos Goyaesque 1985 dress](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b0a4874650ab5191503/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/047-20070301-valentino-garavani-best-looks-in-vogue.jpg) Caroline Trentini in “Valentino’s Goya-esque 1985 dress with a feathered lace back, shirred velvet waist, gathered duchesse satin skirt, and tulle train is ‘only about making a woman look and feel beautiful.’ ”Photographed by Irving Penn, Vogue, March 2007 ![Image may contain Cushion Pillow Human Person Furniture Interior Design Indoors Couch Clothing Apparel and Bed](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5a4d5b0a7696061b846d2eaf/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/19700415-valentino-garavani.jpg) Valentino Garavani.Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, April 15, 1970 ![Image may contain Gwyneth Paltrow Tie Accessories Accessory Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel Human and Person](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d090bc863be215bd71e5/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-1360328.jpg) Gwyneth Paltrow and Valentino Garavani at the Venice Film Festival, 2002. Photo: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images ![Image may contain Evening Dress Fashion Clothing Gown Apparel Robe Human Person Giancarlo Giammetti and Premiere](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d0918082af0e9a58a15a/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-2308645.jpg) Marie-Chantal Miller with Valentino Garavani at the Costume Institute Gala, 2001.Photo: Evan Agostini / Getty Images ![Image may contain Halle Berry Fashion Premiere Human Person Red Carpet Red Carpet Premiere Footwear and Clothing](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d091422e0f6c847baafa/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-692493.jpg) Halle Berry in Valentino at the Golden Globe Awards, 2002.Photo: Vince Bucci / Getty Images ![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Suit Coat Clothing Overcoat Apparel and Oprah Winfrey](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d092f3fef34108819050/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-97324689.jpg) Valentino Garavani and and Oprah Winfrey, 1996.Photo: Richard Corkery / NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images ![Image may contain Human Person Fashion Home Decor Clothing Apparel and Premiere](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d09215d980ff4be4f109/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-75298985.jpg) Valentino Garavani, 1970.Photo: Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images ![Image may contain Cate Blanchett Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown and Robe](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d0928082af0e9a58a15c/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-52251521.jpg) Oscar winner Cate Blanchett in Valentino, 2005.Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images ![Image may contain Anne Hathaway Human Person Red Carpet Fashion Red Carpet Premiere Premiere Tie and Accessories](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d093bc863be215bd71e7/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-109477604.jpg) Anne Hathaway and Valentino Garavani at the Oscars, 2011.Photo: John Shearer / Getty Images ![Image may contain Julia Roberts Clothing Apparel Human Person Evening Dress Fashion Gown Robe Plant and Flower](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d094422e0f6c847baafc/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-529540690.jpg) Oscar-winner Julia Roberts in Valentino, 2001.Photo: Frank Trapper / Corbis via Getty Images ![Image may contain Ben Affleck Tie Accessories Accessory Human Person Fashion Premiere Suit Coat and Clothing](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d094f9e3334bcad92ab3/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-529565714.jpg) Jennifer Lopez, in Valentino, with Ben Affleck at the Academy Awards, 2003.Photo: Frank Trapper / Corbis via Getty Images ![Image may contain Human Person Dance Pose Leisure Activities Sunglasses Accessories Accessory Footwear and Clothing](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d096679b08e243df5df5/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-515395308.jpg) Valentino Garavani and Jacqueline Kennedy, 1970.Photo: Bettmann ![Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Clothing Apparel Suit Coat Overcoat Animal Dog Mammal Pet and Canine](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d0976ee5fc9c17db101d/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-1155592948.jpg) Valentino Garavani and pugs, 1990s.Photo: Archivio APG / Mondadori via Getty Images ![Image may contain Human Person Interior Design Indoors Stage Architecture Building Clothing and Apparel](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d09bf366dc562f987089/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-850704188.jpg) Valentino Garavani in Rome, 1991.Photo: Gianni Giansanti / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images ![Image may contain Halle Berry Clothing Apparel Human Person Fashion Evening Dress Gown Robe and Premiere](https://assets.vogue.com/photos/6176d4dbf3fef34108819054/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/GettyImages-156071795.jpg) Golden Globe winner Halle Berry in Valentino, 2000.Photo: Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
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