Valentino Garavani, fashion designer behind signature red, dies at 93
Italian couturier Valentino Garavani, famed for “Valentino red” and dressing Hollywood and royals, died at 93. He built a couture house and left a lasting influence on fashion.
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By Torontoer Staff
Valentino Garavani, the Italian designer best known for the vivid red tone that bears his name, died on Monday at his home in Rome, his foundation announced. He was 93; the cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
A towering figure from a generation of designers that included Giorgio Armani and Karl Lagerfeld, Valentino helped define modern couture and brought Italian elegance to Parisian haute couture runways for the first time.
Signature red and early career
Valentino’s career began with training in Milan and Paris, where he apprenticed with Jean Dessès. He opened his own fashion house in Rome in 1960 and quickly became associated with a particular shade of red, introduced in 1959 after a moment of inspiration at the opera in Barcelona. The colour, a mix of carmine and scarlet with a hint of orange, became known as Valentino red and featured in every collection he produced.
I think a woman dressed in red is always wonderful, she is the perfect image of a heroine.
Valentino
Couture, celebrities and craft
Valentino dressed some of the most visible women of the 20th century, from Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie Kennedy to Sharon Stone and Penélope Cruz. He sought a cinematic glamour in his work and often described his ambition to dress the 'beautiful ladies of the silver screen.' His gowns combined apparent simplicity with intricate detail, using georgette, chiffon and handworked embellishments.
Among his technical signatures was the budellini technique, which involves hand rolling strips of sheep’s wool into tubes, wrapping them in silk and stitching them together. That attention to artisan technique helped win him numerous awards, including France’s highest civilian honour in 2006.
Partnership and the business of fashion
In 1960 Valentino met Giancarlo Giammetti in a Roman café. Giammetti became both his life partner and the manager who handled the business side of the house while Valentino focused on design. Their long collaboration shaped the brand and its public image.
To share life with a person for your whole existence, every moment, joy, pain, enthusiasm, disappointment, is something that cannot be defined.
Valentino
Valentino built a global business under his name and sold the company ahead of his retirement. He stopped designing for the label in 2008, after a final Paris show in January of that year. The firm changed hands several times: it sold for roughly $300 million before his retirement, was bought by Qatari fund Mayhoola for 700 million euros in 2012, and later saw a 30 percent acquisition by Kering in 2023, with plans for a delayed full transfer.
Legacy and continued cultural work
Even after stepping away from daily design work, Valentino and Giammetti remained active patrons of the arts. Their foundation opened the PM23 gallery in central Rome in 2025, adjacent to the Valentino headquarters. The inaugural exhibition, 'Horizons/Red', emphasised the colour most associated with the designer and the brand.
Red isn’t just a colour, it’s a symbolic and aesthetic force of extraordinary power.
Giancarlo Giammetti
Personal life and public persona
Born in Voghera, south of Milan, Valentino was an only child of a well-to-do family. His interests were modest and personal: he enjoyed chocolate, skiing and his pugs, and he described himself as superstitious and introverted. He also acknowledged his fear of death in interviews in later years.
When he announced his departure from active design work, he framed it as a conscious decision to step back at a high point. 'I have decided that this is the perfect moment to say adieu to the world of fashion,' he said. 'As the English say, I would like to leave the party when it is still full.'
What he leaves behind
Valentino’s influence is visible in the ongoing importance of couture techniques, the persistence of red as a fashion statement, and the continued presence of his eponymous brand in luxury markets. Designers and clients who favoured elegance and refined craftsmanship cite his work as formative.
He described his commitment plainly: 'I love beauty. It is not my fault. And I know what women want: they want to be beautiful.' That approach, blending craft, spectacle and an unmistakable aesthetic, defines his place in fashion history.
Valentino Garavani’s death closes a chapter on a particular era of couture, one in which the designer’s hand and personal vision remained central to a fashion house. His garments, archives and the foundation’s cultural work will continue to shape how designers and audiences understand elegance and colour for years to come.
ValentinoobituaryfashioncoutureRome
