Valentino, the iconic Italian couturier whose name became synonymous with elegance, red carpet glamour and timeless femininity, has died at the age of 93, his foundation confirmed on Monday. He passed away peacefully at his home in Rome, closing the final chapter of one of fashion’s most influential careers.
For nearly half a century, Valentino Garavani dressed the most powerful and admired women in the world, shaping not only trends but the very idea of modern luxury. From royalty to Hollywood legends, his designs became a visual language of grace, confidence and refined beauty.
Throughout his career, Valentino resisted defining his work through fabric or technique alone. Instead, he focused on the woman inside the dress.
“My only goal has always been to make a woman feel beautiful,” he once said. “If she feels radiant, then I have succeeded.”
That philosophy kept him at the center of global fashion for decades.
A Designer to Royalty, Icons and First Ladies
From the early 1960s until his retirement in 2008, Valentino dressed an extraordinary list of women whose public moments became fashion history.
Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Jacqueline Kennedy, Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and countless others trusted Valentino for weddings, award ceremonies and defining life events.
Elizabeth Taylor was among his earliest champions. She wore his gowns to premieres, gala balls and even her own wedding celebrations. Jacqueline Kennedy turned to Valentino during her period of mourning after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and later chose one of his white ensembles for her marriage to Aristotle Onassis.
On the Oscars stage, Valentino’s designs became legendary. Cate Blanchett, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lopez all wore his creations, but the most unforgettable moment came in 2001, when Julia Roberts accepted her Best Actress Oscar in a black-and-white vintage Valentino gown — a look still cited as one of the greatest Oscar dresses of all time.
Valentino later called that moment “one of the happiest of my life.”
From Small-Town Italy to Paris Couture
Born in 1932 in Voghera, a quiet town in northern Italy, Valentino discovered his love for beauty through cinema and magazines as a child. Fascinated by Hollywood stars of the 1940s, he dreamed of one day creating gowns worthy of the silver screen.
He studied fashion in Milan before moving to Paris, where he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and worked under legendary couturiers Jean Dessès and Guy Laroche.
In 1960, with support from his father, he returned to Rome and founded his own fashion house on Via Condotti. Maison Valentino was born — and with it, a new vision of Italian luxury.
That same year, he met Giancarlo Giammetti, who became both his lifelong business partner and closest collaborator. Together, they transformed Valentino into a global empire.
The Birth of “Valentino Red”
One element defined the brand more than any other: red.
Valentino’s signature shade — vibrant, slightly warm, instantly recognizable — appeared in nearly every collection. The color became so iconic that the Pantone Institute later officially recognized it as “Valentino Red.”
“Red is life, passion, and love,” he once said. “A woman in red becomes the heroine of the room.”
At his final haute couture show in 2008, all 40 models appeared in identical red silk gowns, a symbolic farewell to the color that defined his legacy.
Retirement and a Life Beyond the Runway
At 75, Valentino chose to step away while still at the height of his influence. After his retirement, he devoted himself to art, philanthropy and preserving his archives.
Together with Giammetti, he founded a virtual museum and later a cultural foundation in Rome, supporting education, children, the elderly and the arts.
Though no longer designing, he remained a symbol of refinement, elegance and devotion to beauty until his final days.
Final Farewell in Rome
Valentino will lie in state in Rome later this week, with a public funeral scheduled at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.
He leaves behind not just a fashion house, but an entire aesthetic — one that taught generations that true luxury begins with making a woman feel extraordinary.
As he once said:
“There are few greater gifts in life than doing what you love, for your entire life.”