Valentino Garavani death: Italian designer who dressed Jackie Kennedy and helped define modern glamour dies at 93

Valentino Garavani, the legendary Italian fashion designer known mononymously as Valentino, has died. He was 93.

Garavani founded the luxury fashion house Valentino on Via Condotti in Rome in 1960, and it quickly became known as a leading “maison de haute couture”.

Among his early successes, Garavani designed the cream lace wedding gown worn by former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy at her marriage to business tycoon Aristotle Onassis in 1968.

His other creations included Audrey Hepburn’s white lace gown in How to Steal a Million (1966), Julia Roberts’s Y-neck halter gown, which she wore for her Best Actress Oscar win in 2001, and the pale yellow, one-shoulder silk taffeta gown Cate Blanchett wore when she won Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator in 2005.

In a statement on social media, Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti said: “Our founder, Valentino Garavani passed away today at his Roman residence, surrounded by his loved ones.”

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Tributes to Garavani were led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who wrote on X: “Valentino, undisputed master of style and elegance and eternal symbol of Italian high fashion. Today Italy loses a legend, but his legacy will continue to inspire generations. Thank you for everything.”

Gwyneth Paltrow wrote on Instagram: “I was so lucky to know and love Valentino - to know the real man, in private. The man who was in love with beauty, his family, his muses, his friends... This feels like the end of an era. He will be deeply missed by me and all who loved him.”

Garavani was born in Voghera, in Northern Italy, on May 11, 1932. His mother named him after the famed Italian movie star Rudolph Valentino.

He was fascinated by fashion design from a young age, and went to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. While still in Paris, he apprenticed with Jacques Fath, Balenciaga and Jean Desses.

In 1959, at the age of 27, he returned to Rome, where he opened his own fashion house the following year. He was known for his striking dresses, often in a bright shade that became known as “Valentino red”. He soon became a favorite of celebrities. In 1961, Elizabeth Taylor wore a white haute couture column by Valentino to the premiere of Spartacus.

In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy became a fan of Valentino and bought six black-and-white haute couture dresses that she wore during her high-profile year of mourning for President John F Kennedy, who had been assassinated the previous year.

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Garavani’s association with Kennedy helped grow his reputation in the United States, and he spent much of the 1970s based in New York City. He became a well-known public figure and had his portrait painted by Andy Warhol. “He was very nice all the time with me,” Garavani recalled in an interview with System Magazine. “He invited me to the Factory many times, and I was admiring all the paintings on the floor – you had to be careful not to step on them.”

In the 1980s, Garavani helped shape the fashion of the era with his broad-shouldered tailored suits. They became a favorite of the Dynasty star Joan Collins, who was often photographed wearing Valentino. By 1986, Valentino was Italy’s top fashion exporter, shipping some $385 million worth of sales that year.

In 1990, Garavani opened the Accademia Valentino, an art gallery and cultural institution in Rome. He sold Valentino for around $300 million to an Italian conglomerate in 1998, but continued to design until he retired in January 2008. The months leading up to his retirement were captured in the 2008 documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor. In the film, Garavani comments to a reporter: “I know what women want, they want to be beautiful.”

Garavani also made a cameo appearance as himself in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada.

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When Garavani was profiled by The New Yorker in 2005, the mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni quipped: “In Italy, there is the Pope — and there is Valentino.” Vogue described him as “one of the key architects of late 20th century glamour.”

In a 2009 interview on the talk show Charlie Rose, Garavani discussed his method and said: “First of all, I start to draw, to make design of clothes. I’m not capable of creating anything if I have not designed it. So for me, it’s my passion. It was always my life. To wake up in the morning, or in the middle of the evening, if I have some idea, to put on the light and to draw clothes.”

Garavani is survived by his partner Giancarlo Giammetti, whom he met in 1960 and worked with to co-found Valentino.

Garavani’s foundation announced that he will lie in state this Wednesday and Thursday, before a funeral on Friday, January 23 at Rome’s Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.