Ethan Beck
Valentino Garavani, the mononymously known Italian couturier who dressed people of status from Hollywood and royalty, died this week at his house in Rome. He was 93.
His death was confirmed in a statement by the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti.
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 color (red) and details (such as bows and embroidery) while avoiding trends and self-important artistry.
He remained in the public eye by crafting pieces for celebrities, such as Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Cate Blanchett, Princess Diana and Julia Roberts, while maintaining friendships with an endless number of them.
“As a creator, beauty is the most important,” Mr. Garavani said in a 2011 interview with the Talks. “Since I was a child I loved the way a dress looks, I admired a great face, a lovely body. I enjoy the beauty in a woman, in a man, in a child, in a painting.”
Along with his business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, Mr. Garavani helped Italian fashion connect with Paris, setting the stage for other 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. In a 2008 documentary of the same name, he was christened “the last emperor.”
“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 said in the Talks interview. “If they want to call me an icon, okay, then I am an icon.”
Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born on May 11, 1932, in Voghera, about an hour’s drive south of Milan. His father ran an electric supply firm. He was close with his sister, Wanda, who worked in his company and died in 1997.
After seeing the bright dresses and starry headgear of the 1941 musical movie “Ziegfeld Girl,” Mr. Garavani decided that he was going to be a designer. As a teenager, he was particular about his apparel, eventually telling his parents of his clothing aspirations.
With their support, he moved to Milan to learn fashion, before attending the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne in France to study under a former Dior seamstress. Degree in hand, he began working for designer Jean Dessés. He was fired in 1957 for spending too much time at the St. Tropez beach. Mr. Garavani moved on quickly, working for Guy Laroche, who was known for his fancy but practical designs.
After establishing his shop in Rome, Mr. Garavani was seated with Giammetti, then an architecture student, at a table in a packed restaurant. The two were fast friends, then lovers for a period, before settling as lifelong business associates.
Giammetti operated the business side, while Mr. Garavani continued establishing his style. Like any two longtime best friends, they quarreled – sometimes over Mr. Garavani’s controlling approach to the work – but remained extremely close.
“Valentino is very protective of himself,” Giammetti once said. “He doesn’t like to confide in anyone, ever.”
Mr. Garavani’s designs saw a breakthrough in 1962, when he was invited to Florence for a show. After his clothing became standard for Italian socialites, he met Kennedy, who would become his muse. Kennedy wore Mr. Garavani’s dresses while grieving after her husband’s assassination, and when she remarried she wore a lace top and pleated skirt from the Valentino spring 1968 collection.
Mr. Garavani’s red gowns, the cherry at the end of his collections, were initially inspired by the opera “Carmen,” which he saw in Barcelona. To him, the color was indisputable: No matter who wore it, eyes flocked to them.
“From the beginning, I decided red was my lucky color,” Valentino told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “I think it works in every kind of decor. It’s a happy color that gives out lots of vibrations and is flattering to the face. A woman gives light to the house when she lives in red.”
Valentino became an empire during the 1970s, when Mr. Garavani launched his first perfume and licensed his name for luggage, umbrellas and bags. At the same time, he struggled to understand the democratization of fashion, preferring the glamorous exclusivity of his earlier years.
In 1998, Mr. Garavani and Giammetti sold their company for a reported $300 million, setting off a series of acquisitions, before it was spun off as a Valentino Fashion Group in 2005. Mr. Garavani remained as creative director until 2008.
Despite producing eight collections and hundreds of drawings every year, Mr. Garavani understood when to quit. He continued with extravagant shows – including an anniversary gala in 2007 that involved a dinner at the Temple of Venus and Rome, a runway show, a dinner at the Galleria Borghese for over 1,000 and several other exhibitions – up until his retirement.
“Success is something that can be very dangerous,” he said in the Los Angeles Times. “It’s like a suit that you like to wear that gets too tight sometimes.”
He dedicated his remaining years to his five homes around the world, operated by dozens of staff, and his five pugs, who traveled with him. Occasionally, he’d work on costumes for operas (including Sofia Coppola’s Rome production of “La Traviata” in 2016) or special outfits for the actresses, cultural figures or dignitaries that he kept up with, including Sarah Jessica Parker and Anne Hathaway.
When reflecting upon more than 40 years of red dresses, he compared them to his children and noted that they remained timeless.
“I always believed so much in elegance and femininity,” he told the New York Times in 2007. “They could all be worn today and that makes me very proud.”
