Valentino Garavani, Iconic Italian Designer, Dies at 93

Valentino Garavani, the Italian designer known as fashion’s “Last Emperor,” died on Monday at 93.

He believed in the power of beauty and la dolce vita, designing what the piece calls paeans to the allure of red and the carefully placed ruffle. The essay says that through periods of power dressing and grunge he never lost his faith, spreading his aesthetic from Rome to Paris and beyond.

Acolytes listed in the photo retrospective include Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana and Julia Roberts; the essay also notes that Jennifer Lopez and Nicky Hilton wore Valentino to weddings. It says he was recognizable for his perma-tan and his pugs, and that he and his partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, lived with multiple homes, a yacht and a ski chalet.

The photographs range from images in Rome in 1959 to his arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport in 1966, Jacqueline Kennedy wearing a cream lace dress he made after her 1968 wedding in Greece, Brooke Shields closing a 1981 show, his final women’s ready-to-wear presentation in Paris in October 2007, and Julia Roberts wearing a custom archive gown from 1982 when she won an Oscar for her role in “Erin Brockovich” in 2021. The essay serves as a visual retrospective and does not provide additional details about the circumstances of his death.

Key Topics

Culture, Valentino Garavani, Giancarlo Giammetti, Rome, Paris, Jacqueline Kennedy