Valentino Garavani, Fashion Titan Who Dressed Pop, Hollywood, and Royal Stars, Dead at 93

Valentino Garavani, founder of the luxury fashion house Valentino, who outfitted historic figures from Princess Diana and Audrey Hepburn to Julia Roberts and Beyoncé, died in Rome on Monday, Jan. 19. He was 93.

“Valentino Garavani passed away today at his Roman residence, surrounded by his loved ones,” the foundation Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti confirmed on Instagram.

Garavani launched Valentino in 1960 and, over the course of more than six decades, saw the brand cement its status as one of the most coveted in fashion history. “A woman with taste,” Valentino responded in 2011 when asked what makes a perfect model for the brand. “She must know what she wants, because it’s very frustrating for me if somebody says, ‘Listen, I’ll let you do what you want; I’m there like a piece of glass, and you have to do something nice for me.’ I think it’s better if a woman comes and she discusses with you, and she has personality, so you are more attracted to her to make clothes. This is the kind of woman I love.”

Elizabeth Taylor wore a floor-length white Valentino gown to the premiere of Spartacus in 1961, after which she made a personal trip to the Valentino headquarters in Rome to demand seven more outfits. Garavani and Giammetti, his business partner and close friend, happily obliged. Valentino also supplied First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy with couture pieces as she mourned her husband, John F. Kennedy. Garavani later designed the wedding gown she wore when she remarried in 1968 and the black tiered gown she wore to the 1979 Met Gala.

Julia Roberts made red carpet history in 2001 when she attended the Academy Awards in a black-and-white Valentino couture dress from 1992. Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Anne Hathaway, and more followed suit, often selecting Valentino looks for Hollywood’s biggest nights. In 2022, Florence Pugh made headlines after wearing a sheer, pink Valentino gown, and Dakota Johnson launched her first campaign as a global brand ambassador for the house in November 2025.
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Garavani stepped down as creative director at Valentino in 2007, passing the torch quite briefly to Alessandra Facchinetti, who was succeeded by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli in 2008. In 2024, Alessandro Michele made the move to Valentino from Gucci. “This place has such a specific story,” Michele told Business of Fashion. “That name, Valentino — it’s a real name, with real life, with real love. There is always Valentino somewhere with me.”

Valentino has its hooks in deep in the pop world, too. In 2022, Beyoncé attended the 2022 Academy Awards in Valentino haute couture just months before she would debut custom looks from the fashion house on the Renaissance world tour. Dua Lipa did the same on the Radical Optimism tour, wearing a lace bodysuit in that signature Valentino red. Sabrina Carpenter received her own custom red lace look for the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards and just this weekend wore a slip dress from Valentino’s Spring 2006 ready-to-wear collection for her surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live.
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In 2008, the documentary film Valentino: The Last Emperor offered a glimpse inside the life Garavani lived, from his closest collaborators to his most treasured confidants. ”Valentino was one of the first designers to make himself the inspirational figure at the center of the story he was telling,” director Matt Tyrnauer previously said. “He is a born dreamer and the last true couturier, who let us in on his creative process and also let us in on the life he built around him to sustain this process. He lives as lavishly as his clients and set a standard for the industry. He shuts out all that is not beautiful, and we followed him around the world to capture that special world.”

Even after his retirement, Garavani continued to celebrate his own legacy. “I have always accepted with joy all the names and the titles that they have given me: The King, The Emperor, The Icon. I am Valentino,” he told The Talks in 2011. “I live in my own world. My life didn’t change; it’s always been the same. 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. If they want to call me an icon, okay, then I am an icon. What can I say?”