Fashion giant Valentino Garavani, who dressed Hollywood and royalty, dies at 93
Fashion giant Valentino Garavani, who dressed Hollywood and royalty, dies at 93
Valentino Garavani, the mononymously known Italian couturier who dressed people of status from Hollywood and royalty, died Monday at his house in Rome. He was 93.
His death was confirmed by the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti in a statement.
After apprenticing at Balenciaga in Paris, Mr. Garavani opened Valentino in Rome in 1960, with the backing of his father. From then until 2008, he was its creative director, defining Italian style with his signature red. He dressed Jacqueline Kennedy, Cate Blanchett and others and was eventually christened “the last emperor” in a 2008 documentary of that name.
Mr. Garavani was not a trend follower nor a self-important artist. But he remained in the public eye by crafting pieces for celebrities, such as Italian socialite Marella Agnelli or actress Elizabeth Taylor, while maintaining friendships with an endless number of them.
Veteran Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani poses during the opening of his 2007 exhibition at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome.
Along with his business partner and close associate, Giancarlo Giammetti, Mr. Garavani helped Italian fashion connect with Paris, setting the stage for other Italian brands like Versace and Armani. His relentless search for beauty intertwined with his stature in culture, as he became known to even the most unstylish.
“I still am like I was many, many years ago, the same person. I love to create clothes, I love beautiful things, I love beautiful houses, I love entertaining,” Mr. Garavani once said. “If they want to call me an icon, okay, then I am an icon.”
This story will be updated.
Valentino Garavani acknowledges the audience after his show in Paris in October 2003.
