Valentino biography fashion designer

With nearly six decades at the top of the fashion industry, Valentino remains one of the most recognizable brands in the world. A consistent staple in film and on the red carpet, its become synonymous with high fashion and has been since its early days.

Valentino's namesake is not just a nod to the red dress that's featured in every collection. It's is also the name of its founder, Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani. The brand's simple "V" emblem, featured on the accessories, has become an iconic signature worldwide.

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From a red tulle dress to coloring the modern runways in head-to-toe pink, here's everything to know about Valentino.

Who founded Valentino? 

Valentino Garavani was born in 1932 in Lombardy, Italy. He was interested in fashion from a young age, but it wasn't until age 17 that he moved to Paris to study at the ​​Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. From 1957 to 1959, Valentino worked in designer Guy Laroche's atelier until going off on his own. 

In 1960, he partnered with architect Giancarlo Giammetti to start his eponymous line. In an interview with Fern Malis during a live chat for Fashion Icons in 2014, and reported on by Racked, he explained the partnership.

"He asked if he could see the fashion house, and he said, 'What a boring life I have, to be an architect, to go home to study. I would love to come here and do something for the fashion house,'" he said. "He came, and he took care of everything that was not part of the creation. Little by little, we arrived at something quite solid."

The signature red dress. 

In his first ready-to-wear collection in 1959, Valentino included a dress called the 'Fiesta.' It was a strapless, mid-length dress in a bright red color that would quickly become a signature for the brand, otherwise known as Valentino Red. From then on, every collection featu

Valentino Garavani was born on May 11, 1932, in the town of Voghera, to the south of Milan. He studied at the prestigious Accademia dell'Arte in Milan followed by the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, as well as the French capital's Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture.

Valentino's career

Taking his first job with couturier Jean Dessès in 1950, he moved five years later to the atelier of Guy Laroche. Towards the tail-end of the decade he set up his own couture house with partner Giancarlo Giammetti in Rome. In 1962 he showed a couture collection at the Pitti Palace in Florence for the first time to critical acclaim, a moment regarded as his breakthrough and he soon became the go-to for dressing the stars. 

Valentino and Laroche sold the fashion empire they created for $300 million to an Italian company in 1998, although Valentino, whose diffusion line Oliver is named after one of his pugs, retained a five-year consultancy deal. The Italian maestro is primarily a couturier who makes clothes for women, rather than the catwalk spectacles favoured by some younger designers. Jackie Kennedy wore Valentino for her second wedding to Greek tycoon Ari Onassis, and most of America's ladies who lunch are Valentino frock-wearers. Hollywood adored his designs, and perennial 'Best Dressed' listers Kate Capshaw and Rita Wilson, both of whom attended his 40th-anniversary bash in 2000, are big fans.

Valentino's later life

The designer owns homes in Versailles, Rome, Capri, Tuscany, London, Gstaad and New York, as well as a yacht, TM Blue One, on which he regularly played host to a bevy of supermodels. Elle, Claudia, Naomi, Liz et al were all regular guests. In early 2008 an era came to an end when Valentino bade farewell to the fashion scene.

Valentino Garavani (better known as Valentino) was born in 1932 in Voghera, Italy. During his childhood, Valentino became interested in fashion design when helping his aunt Rosa as well as a local designer, Ernestina Salvadeo.

He moved to Paris to study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and at the École des Beaux-Arts.

He apprenticed at Jacques Fath and afterward at Balenciaga and Jean Desses. Then he worked for two years at Guy Laroche. 

In 1959, the designer decided to return to Italy and settled in Rome. With his father's help, Valentino opened a fashion house in Rome, which had many elements influenced by Paris tradition.

Valentino's international debut took place in 1962 in Florence, Italy. In 1964, the designer was spotted by Jacqueline Kennedy, which brought Valentino a lot of good PR, as he was a friend and the designer of the American President’s wife. Over the next decade, the designer  only became more and more successful.

In 1990, the Academia Valentino opened in Rome close to the designer’s atelier and became a cultural space for art exhibitions.

In 1998, Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti, his partner, sold the company to the Italian conglomerate HdP for around 300 million USD. In 2002, it was resold to Marzotto Apparel. Nowadays, the brand is sold in more than 90 countries with more than 1500 points of sale.

In 2007, Valentino decided to leave the world fashion stage and, in January 2008, his last haute couture collection was shown in Paris. 

Watch Valentino Garavani presenting the costumes for the New York City Ballet

Make a short tour through Valentino's virtual museum

Italian fashion designer (born 1932)

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani (Italian pronunciation:[valenˈtiːnoɡaraˈvaːni]; born 11 May 1932), known mononymously as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer, the founder of the Valentino brand and company. His main lines include Valentino, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Roma, and R.E.D. Valentino.

Career

Early life and 1950s Paris years

Valentino was born in Voghera, in the Italian province of Pavia, on the 11th of May 1932. His mother named him after screen idolRudolph Valentino. He became interested in fashion while in primary school in his native Voghera, when he apprenticed under his aunt Rosa and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo, an aunt of noted artist Aldo Giorgini. Valentino then moved to Paris to pursue this interest with the help of his mother Teresa de Biaggi and his father Mauro Garavani. There Valentino studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

His first choice for an apprenticeship, in Paris, was Jacques Fath, then Balenciaga. He found an apprenticeship with Jean Dessès where he helped Countess Jacqueline de Ribes sketch her dress ideas. He then joined Guy Laroche for two years.

After five years, Valentino left Jean Dessès over an incident about prolonging a vacation in Saint-Tropez that still makes him uncomfortable today. Rescued by his friend Laroche, he joined his "tiny, tiny" fashion house. After discussions with his parents, he decided to return to Italy and set up in Rome in 1959, as pupil of Emilio Schuberth and then collaborated with Vincenzo Ferdinandi's atelier before opening his own fashion house.

Rome

In 1960 Valentino left Paris and opened a fashion house in Rome on the posh Via Condotti with the backing of his father and an associate of his. More than an atelier, the premises resembled a real "maison de haute couture". Ev