Valentino
Born	11 May 1932 (age 77) Voghera, Pavia, Lombardy
Nationality	Italian and French
Education	École des Beaux-Arts
Labels	Valentino
Awards	Grande ufficiale dell' Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana, Cavaliere del Lavoro, The Neiman Marcus Award

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, best known as Valentino (born 11 May 1932) is an Italian fashion designer and founder of the Valentino SpA brand and company. His fashion house is among the world's most famous haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion empires.

Career

The Paris years (1949-1959)

Valentino became interested in men and women's fashion while in primary school in his native Voghera, Lombardy, northern Italy, when he apprenticed under his aunt Rosa and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo, an aunt of noted artist Aldo Giorgini). At 17, Valentino moved to Paris to pursue this interest with the help of his mother Teresa de Biaggi and his father Mauro Garavani. There he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

His first choice in Paris was Jacques Fath, then Balenciaga. He then found apprentice jobs with Jean Desses where he used to help style icon countess Jacqueline de Ribes sketch her dress ideas. He then joined Guy Laroche for 2 years. At Desses, Valentino sketched furiously, between helping with window dressing and greeting clients for the daily 2:30 p.m. private showings. Most of his early sketches were lost. At a Rome exhibition in 1991 a smattering went on display and current clients at that time such as Marie Hélène de Rothschild and Elizabeth Taylor marveled that the DNA of Valentino's style was already apparent in the layers of white pleats and animal prints.

After five years, Valentino left Jean Desses under a cloud over an incident about prolonging a vacation in St. Tropez that still makes him wriggle uncomfortably today. Rescued by his friend Guy 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.

Rome: la dolce vita (1959-1962)

In 1959 Valentino left Paris and moved back to Italy with his lover, French socialite Gerald Nanty 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 couture", being it very much on the line of what Valentino had seen in Paris: everything was very grand and models flew in from Paris for his first show. Valentino became known for his red dresses, in the bright shade that became known in the fashion industry as "Valentino red".

On 31 July 1960 Valentino met Giancarlo Giammetti at the Café de Paris on the Via Veneto in Rome. One of three children, Giammetti was in his second year of architecture school, living at home with his parents in the haut bourgeois Parioli section of Northern Rome. That day Giammetti gave Valentino a lift home in his little Fiat and a friendship as well as a long-lasting partnership started. The day after, Giammetti was to leave for Capri for vacation and by coincidence Valentino was also going there so they met again in the island 10 days later. Giammetti would shortly after abandon the University to become Valentino's business partner. When Giammetti arrived, the business situation of Valentino's atelier was in fact not brilliant: in one year he had spent so much money that his father's associate pulled out of the business, and had to fight against bankruptcy. Giammetti's entrepreneurial genius will prove fundamental to the worldwide expansion and success of the House, with him Valentino was able to focus on the creative aspect of design leaving all business intricacies to his partner. Valentino already had a passion for luxury and would spend too much money on expensive fabrics never thinking about the financial aspects of his fashion business.

Breakthrough in Florence (1962-1967)

Valentino's international debut took place in 1962 in Florence, the Italian fashion capital of the time. His first show at the Pitti Palace was welcomed as a true revelation and the young couturier was submerged by orders from foreign buyers and enthusiastic comments on the press.

After the breakthrough show in Florence, Valentino started to dress the ladies of the international best-dressed crowd such as his acquaintance from the Paris years Countess Jacqueline de Ribes and New York socialites Babe Paley and Jayne Wrightsman.

In 1966, confident of his client base, he moved his shows from Florence to Rome and there, two years later, he had one of his greatest triumphs, an all-white collection, which became famous for the "V" logo he designed.

By the mid-1960s he was already considered the undisputed maestro of Italian Couture, receiving in 1967 the Neiman Marcus Award, the equivalent of an Oscar in the field of fashion. The Begum Aga Khan, Farah Diba, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Gloria Guinness, Marella Agnelli, Marisa Berenson, Veruschka and Princess Margaret were already customers as well as personal friends.

Getting Jackie (1964)

In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy had seen Gloria Schiff, the twin sister of the Rome-based fashion editor of American Vogue and Valentino's friend Consuelo Crespi, wearing an two-piece ensemble in black organza at a party. Kennedy contacted Gloria Schiff to learn the name of the ensemble's designer, Valentino. In September 1964, Valentino presented a collection of his work at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a charitable organization. Since Kennedy wanted to see the collection, Valentino sent a saleswoman, along with a model, to Kennedy's apartment on Fifth Avenue. Mrs. Kennedy ordered six of his haute couture dresses, all in black and white, to wear during her year of mourning after President John F. Kennedy's assassination. From then on, she became a devoted client and friend. Later, Valentino would design the white dress worn by Kennedy to her wedding to Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

The '70s

Throughout the 1970s Valentino spent considerable time in New York City where his presence was embraced by social personalities such as Vogue's editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland and art identities such as Andy Warhol.

The Accademia Valentino

1989 marked the opening of the Accademia Valentino, designed by Architect Tommaso Ziffer, a cultural space located near his atelier in Rome, for the presentation of art exhbitions. The next year, encouraged by their friend Elizabeth Taylor, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti created L.I.F.E., an association for the support of AIDS-related patients, which benefits from the activities of the Accademia Valentino.

From HDP group to Marzotto group

In 1998 Valentino and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti sold the company for approximately $300 million to HdP, an Italian conglomerate controlled, in part, by the late Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat. In 2002, Valentino S.p.A., with revenues of more than $180 million, was sold by HdP to Marzotto Apparel, a Milan-based textile giant, for $210 million.

It was rumored that HDP was displeased with Valentino's and Giammetti's personal expenses, a claim Giammetti has bristled at: businessmen have a perspective of fashion which is completely old-fashioned, they believe fashion is a little show with models-beautiful girls they would like to know-who walk on the runway. They don’t know how much work is behind it, and how important the image of the founder and the designer is for the company. You cannot talk about the dresses of Valentino without thinking about him, and when you think about him, you think about the glamorous life he leads, and all that adds to the product(Vanity Fair, August 2004).

Personal life

Love and family

Valentino and Giammetti were together for 12 years. Neither ever discussed their relationship with anyone outside their closest circle of friends, not even with their mothers. Valentino's mother, Teresa, moved from Voghera to Rome to help with the business. Eventually he told both his parents that he was engaged with Italian actress Marilù Tolo, the only woman he had really loved and with whom he'd have liked to have children.

Légion d'honneur

On Thursday, 6 July 2006 President Chirac of France awarded Valentino with final jewel in the crown of his achievements: Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur from the country where he arrived as a 17-year-old Italian boy - and fell in love with haute couture. "I am very honored", said Valentino, who has gleaned awards from across the world from his native Italy to America. "French people are charming, adorable but not extremely generous with foreigners, but they believe in what they do. I feel proud in exchange because what I did in restoration is something I did for La France." (Herald Tribune) Valentino was referring to restoring Wideville, his Louis XIII chateau outside Paris.

Patrons of the art

Both Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti are renowned for their extensive collection of art spread among their homes around the world including Picasso, Cy Twombly, Balthus, Damien Hirst. In the 1980s they became close friends (and clients) of Thomas Ammann with whom they shared their passion for Warhol and Twombly especially, "...it was Thomas Ammann who taught us to love art...".

High living

Valentino and Giammetti's lifestyle has always been flamboyant to the extreme. John Fairchild, editor-at-large at Women's Wear Daily and W, told Vanity Fair (August 2004): Valentino and Giancarlo are the kings of high living. Every other designer looks and says, ‘How do they live the way they do?’ I don’t think they made the money that Valentino and Giancarlo did, because Giancarlo knows how to make money. If they did, they didn’t spend the money like Valentino. No other designer ever did. When the terrorism first started in Rome - the period when the Red Brigades were kidnapping people - Valentino was riding around in a bulletproof Mercedes. And do you know what color the Mercedes was? Red. My God, I thought, you must want to get blown up.

Valentino owns marvelous villas and apartments around the world, all boasting an extensive array of art pieces. These are: Palazzo Mignanelli near the Spanish steps in Rome and a villa on the Via Appia Antica, a major historical landmark of Rome, Chalet Gifferhorn in Gstaad, Switzerland. In France it's the Chateau de Wideville, a castle on 120 acres (0.49 km²) in Davron, about 30 minutes outside Paris which he bought in 1998 and had meticulously restored by the late Henri Samuel, the dean of French interior design. The castle had been previously decorated by the late Renzo Mongiardino, the greatest of the Italian decorators, who also worked on Valentino's Roman villa and Giammetti's Tuscan house. Built circa 1600, the castle was once the home of Claude de Bullion, the finance minister for Louis XIII, who slept at Wideville, according to a plaque in the castle, on January 22, 1634. During the reign of Louis XIV, Madame de la Valliere, one of his mistresses, lived at Wideville. Her bedroom, a mirrored-walled chapel with a 30-foot (9.1 m)-high ceiling, was converted into a bathroom. Valentino also has an apartment near the Frick Museum overlooking Central Park, New York and one of the largest private houses in London's Holland Park, a 19th-century mansion whose centerpiece is the grand salon, which features five late Picassos. The breakfast room is lined with 200 Meissen plates, and the small salon has two Basquiats and a painting by Damien Hirst. His villa on the cliffs of Capri has recently been sold.

Valentino also spends much time on T. M. Blue One, his hundred-and-fifty-two-foot long yacht boasting a full-time staff of eleven, and a selection of art ranging from Picassos to Andy Warhol. He frequently visits Giancarlo Giammetti's residences: the penthouses in Via Condotti in Rome and on the Quai D'Orsay in Paris, or the country estate in Cetona, Tuscany.

Valentino's big family

An enlarged family: Giancarlo, Carlos, Charlene, Anthony and Sean

Observers have often noticed how Valentino always had a boy with him. He seems to move surrounded by a court of friends which has become a real family for him. This court always comprises his business associate and ex boyfriend Giancarlo Giammetti, his current boyfriend American bag and jewel designer Bruce Hoeksema, Brazilian brothers Sean and Anthony Souza, as well as their parents Carlos Souza and socialite Charlene Shorto de Ganay, Souza's ex-wife, who are both Valentino's PR. Carlos Souza met Valentino and Giammetti in 1973 in Rio de Janeiro when he was 18 years old. Valentino and Giammetti are also the godfathers of Anthony and Sean. Giammetti confided to Vanity Fair that "this family has stayed together because of me, because when Valentino gets mad he cuts - that is that. I remember when Carlos left and moved to Brazil and married Charlene. Valentino refused to speak to him, but I always talked to Carlos. Then one day Carlos called and said he had a baby boy, Sean. I handed the phone to Valentino, and he started to cry and cry".

Bruce Hoeksema

As affirmed in an interview with American Vanity Fair he has been romantically involved, since 1982, with American jewel and bag designer Bruce Hoeksema, a former model who was a vice president of the house of Valentino until 1998.

Spanish muses: Nati Abascal and Rosario Nadal

Throughout his career, Valentino has been deeply inspired by many glamorous women. Some of them have become very close friends, making up what is referred to as the Valentino's "family". This includes Spanish socialites Nati Abascal, a former model who was married to the Duke of Feria, and Rosario of Bulgaria, the wife of Prince Kyril of Bulgaria. Valentino met Nati Abascal in 1968 at a party when she was a 19 year old model and brought her to Capri. Rosario of Bulgaria met Valentino in her native Majorca in the 90s via Carlos Souza at a club. Another close friend of Valentino is his former PR French-Brazilian Georgina Brandolini, who worked for Valentino for 18 years before leaving for Balmain and ultimately starting a fashion career on her own.

The Valentino entourage often travels together everywhere around the world for vacation, moving between Valentino's and Giammetti's various homes around the world and in summertime to the yacht, where for a period in the 90s, Giammetti made everyone except Valentino do needlepoint.

Valentino's PR Daniela Giardina, architect Tommaso Ziffer, a close friend of Giancarlo Giammetti, and actress Gwyneth Paltrow are also part of the group. Since Marzotto group's acquisition of Valentino from HDP group, Matteo Marzotto and her socialite mother, Marta Marzotto, often join the party.

Maude, Margot, Monty, Molly, Milton and Maggie

Valentino adores dogs to the point that he once named a second line of clothing after his late pug Oliver. Today Valentino owns six pugs: the mother, Molly; her sons, Milton and Monty; and her daughters, Margot, Maude and Maggie. When traveling on his 14-seat Challenger jet, three cars are needed to move Valentino and his entourage to the airport: one to move Valentino and Giammetti, another for the luggage and the staff and a third to transport five of six Valentino's pugs as one of them, Maude, always travels with Valentino.

Giammetti told Vanity Fair (August 2004): Valentino is embarrassed to be seen traveling with so many dogs. People look at him enough as it is. He often asks his valets to bring the pugs out of the car after he has boarded the plane, sometimes in two shifts so that there seem to be fewer animals. After take-off Maude is released by a butler. She runs forward and jumps up on Valentino's lap, but before she can settle in, another staff member appears with a light-blue linen cloth, which he unfurls and placed under the dog to minimize the effects of shedding. At lunchtime Maude is returned to her fellow pugs.

Other appearances

Movie appearances

In 2006 Valentino did a cameo role as himself in the hit movie The Devil Wears Prada. One of the DVD's featurettes is called "Getting Valentino" and shows an interview of the designer and Valentino backstage with the movie's actresses, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, his partner Giancarlo Giammetti, and his PRs Carlos de Souza and Charlene Shorto de Ganay.

Valentino movie - "Valentino: The Last Emperor"

Valentino: The Last Emperor a feature-length documentary on the designer premiered at the 2008 Venice International Film Festival. Produced and directed by Matt Tyrnauer, Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, the film follows Valentino and his inner circle throughout various events, including last year's anniversary show celebrating his 45 years of career. In production from June 2005 to July 2007, the filmmakers shot over 250 hours of footage with exclusive, unprecedented access to Valentino and his entourage. "We were let in to the inner circle, but we had to stick it out for a long time, practically move in, to capture the truly great moments", says Tyrnauer. "Valentino is surrounded by a tight-knit family of friends and employees, but, eventually, their guard came down and they forgot there was a camera crew in the room."

The film had its North American premiere at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the U.S. on March 18 in New York and selected cities. Indiewire called it the highest-grossing documentary debut of 2009.

45th Anniversary

Valentino Museum

During the festivities for the 45th year of Valentino's career the Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni announced that the site of the Valentino museum will a building in via San Teodoro in Rome between the Palatine hill and the Bocca della Verità (mouth of truth).

45 years of Valentino: 6-8 July 2007, Rome

In order to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Valentino's career a fashion extravaganza took place in Rome between 6th and 8 July 2007. Festivities started on Thursday 5 July with a dinner for Valentino's assistants and employees at Ristorante Gusto and ended on Sunday 8 July with the launch of a perfume and a brunch at the French Academy of Villa Medici.

The main five exclusive golden invitation cards have been sent from the Valentino headquarters for the main weekend's events:

The fashion setting was two halls called Sala Incisa and Sala Baglivi of the restructured 16th century Santo Spirito in Saxia complex, next to Castel Sant'Angelo and the Vatican. Valentino showed about 61 couture dresses, a record number considering an HC show never shows more than 40 gowns. The collection referenced many of the leitmotifs revealed in the retrospective at Ara Pacis and was a tour de force of the flawless and unmatchable techniques that Valentino's brilliant workrooms. The music segued from Mahler's Fifth to Maria Callas's hauntingly beautiful rendition of Puccini's 'O Mio Babbino Caro' as Valentino took his bow.

An impressive roster of fellow designers who had gathered to pay homage—Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Donatella Versace, Tom Ford, Diane von Fürstenberg, Carolina Herrera, Zac Posen, Manolo Blahnik, and Philip Treacy among them—led the standing ovation, which drew tears from the habitually unflappable designer, who embraced Giancarlo Giammetti on the runway.'It was the most fantastic collection,' said Princess Firyal of Jordan backstage. 'I'm about to cry, too.

Socialites included Daphne Guinness in a black-and-white lace flamenco dress with silver platforms and ostrich-feather eyelashes and Lita Livanos, Sheetal Mafatlal, and Rena Sindi, Nada Kirdar, Lynn Wyatt (in the red taffeta ruffles of a dress Valentino made for her 25 years ago that she found in her attic), Allison Sarofim in a coral-beaded 1960s Valentino, Eugenia Niarchos and Phivos Istavrioglou, famous heir and socialite from Greece. Singer Annie Lennox held a surprise concert.

• Sunday, July : Valentino launched the house's latest perfume, Rock 'n Rose Couture and a giant book (see below).

In addition to the celebration in Rome, a tribute book written by Vanity Fair writer Matt Tyrnauer will be published in July by Taschen.

Italian fashion designer Valentino, who has dressed some of the world's most glamorous women, has announced that he is to retire. The 75-year-old has said he would step down in January. He celebrated 45 years in the industry this summer.

Rosso Valentino

Valentino's trademark red colour, known as rosso Valentino, is a combination of 100% magenta, 100% yellow and 10% black (CMYK color model).

Retirement

On September 4, 2007 Valentino announced that he would retire fully from the world stage after his last Haute-Couture show in Paris. He delivered his last women's Ready-to-wear show in Paris on October 4 to a rapturous applause.

His last haute couture show was presented in Paris at the Musée Rodin on January 23, 2008. It was, however, somewhat marred by his criticism of fellow Italian design duo Dolce and Gabbana, and the death of Australian actor Heath Ledger (a prominent fashion show-goer) although few allowed these things to detract from his final show receiving a standing ovation from the entire audience, which included hundreds of notable names from all areas of showbusiness. Many models returned to show for Valentino's last haute couture show, including Eva Herzigova, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Nadja Auermann, Karolina Kurkova and Karen Mulder.

Valentino was presented with the Medal of the City of Paris the following day Thursday January 24, 2008 for his services to fashion in the city where he was educated.

Timeline

• 1959 Having completed his fashion studies and an apprenticeship with Jean Desses and Guy Laroche, Valentino starts up his first studio in Rome
• 1960 Begins his collaboration with Giancarlo Giammetti, who manages the commercial development of the House of Valentino
• 1962 His first collection at the international fashion Gotha in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, is a triumphant success
• 1965 Valentino is recognized as the top name in Italian Haute Couture
• 1967 He is awarded the Neiman Marcus Prize in Dallas
• 1968 Valentino's reputation is secured with the enormous success of his "Collezione Bianca", the first clothes and accessories to have the magic "V" label Designs the wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Kennedy for her marriage to Aristotle Onassis.
• 1969 Begins his Boutique line of clothes and opens the first Valentino shop in Milan
• 1970 Launch of his first ready-to-wear collections Opening of Valentino boutiques in Rome and New York
• 1971 Opening of the first menswear shop in Via Condotti
• 1975 First fashion show of his Ready-to-Wear collection in Paris
• 1976 Opens a boutique in Tokyo
• 1978 Launch of the Valentino perfume at a gala evening in Paris, at the Theater des Champs Elysees
• 1982 Publication of the book Valentino, edited by Franco Maria Ricci 20 September, Valentino presents his Autumn/Winter collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York
• 1983 Valentino lends his talents to the Lincoln Continental, an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. His contribution includes unique color combinations for the 1983, 1984, and 1985 model years of the car.
• 1984 Valentino celebrates his twenty-fifth year in the business and receives an official award from the Minister for Industry
• 1985 He is awarded the Grand'Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito by the President of Italy
• 1986 Receives the highest decoration possible in Italy, the Cavaliere di Gran Croce, from the President
• 1989 First show of the haute couture collection in Paris
• 1990 In February, Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti found L.I.F.E (initials in Italian for "Fighting, Informing, Building, Teaching"), an association working for the fight against Aids. The Accademia Valentino is also officially opened to the public with an exhibition of painters of the Roman School Exhibition of "The Art of Cartier" at the Accademia Valentino Publication of the book "Valentino: Trent'Anni de Magia", by Leonardo arte.
• 1991 To celebrate his 30th year in the fashion business, an exhibition entitled "Valentino: Thirty Years of Magic" is organized in Valentino's honour by the Mayor of Rome at the Capitole Museum, while the Accademia Valentino presents a retrospective of his designs. Creation of the perfume Vendetta for men and women.
• 1992 Exhibition at the Accademia Valentino entitled: "La seduzione da Boucher a Warhol" The "Valentino: Thirty Years of Magic"' exhibition is invited to go to New York to coincide with the fifth centenary celebrations of the discovery of America. Valentino is invited by the Chinese government to stage a show in Beijing* 1994 In January, Valentino presents his first ever costume designs at the Eisenhower Theatre in the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., for an opera entitled The Dream of Valentino, based on the life of the movie star Rudolf Valentino
• 1995 Valentino's return to Italy is celebrated on 14 January in Florence with a fashion show at the Stazione Leopolda, over thirty years his first show at the Palazzo Pitti. The Mayor of Florence awards him the "Premio speciale dell'arte nella moda"
• 1996 Valentino is named Cavaliere del Lavoro
• 2004 launch of V perfume which will be followed by V for men
• 2006 Opens a boutique on Newbury Street in Boston
• 2006 President Chirac awards Valentino of the Légion d'honneur
• 2007 Opens a boutique in Bangkok
• 2007 Opens a boutique in Honolulu on the Waikiki beachwalk (Kalakaua Avenue)
• 2007 Opens a boutique in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 2007 September 4: Valentino announces his retirement
• 2007 October 4, Valentino shows his last fashion show.
• 2007 Opens a boutique in Dallas at NorthPark Center
• 2008 January 23, Valentino shows his last Haute-Couture show, and retires fully from the world stage
• 2008 Opens a boutique in Atlanta at Phipps Plaza