Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani—known, simply and powerfully, as Valentino—was born on May 11th, 1932, in Voghera, a rather quiet place lost somewhere between Milan and Genoa. But by the time he died, aged 93, on January 19, he had conquered the worlds of fashion and style, bringing a certain idea of beauty—luxurious, impactful, glamorous, immaculate, feminine—to whatever he touched.
“I love beauty—it’s not my fault,” Valentino famously said with a shrug, and in fashion, he saw a way to captivate and ensnare women (his only clients when starting out, before he widened the purview of his well-dressed net).
He trained at the Accademia dell’Arte in Milan, studying both French and fashion, and then, aged 17, moved to Paris, to the École des Beaux-Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, before securing an apprenticeship in 1951 with the Athenian couturier Jean Dessès, who dressed royalty and high society ladies in his immaculately draped and vividly colored evening gowns. Jacqueline, the Comtesse de Ribes, dressed with Dessès, and when she was asked by Oleg Cassini to design some dresses for him in Paris, she mentioned it to Dessès, telling the designer that “I don’t know how to draw in a chic way.” Dessès was amused. “I have an Italian illustrator,” he told her, “who would be very happy to earn a little more money after working-hours doing the drawings for you”—and a friendship between Valentino and Jacqueline was born.
When he was chez Dessès, Valentino also created—sketches only—a series of lavishly draped and embroidered dresses as a fantasy project, including a day dress of blue chiffon (miles and miles of it) and an evening dress embroidered close to the body with cameos containing flowers and pink and yellow and brown chiffon draped across the bust and falling from the back to the floor: clothes for a Cinecitta star. (When he held his 30th anniversary party and exhibition in 1992, le tout monde descended on Rome to celebrate with him. His phenomenal workrooms had secretly recreated the designs in these early sketches—the abiti del sogno (dream dresses)—which proved to be every bit as ravishing when spirited to life as they had been when Valentino first dreamt of them.)
Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor “in black taffeta and lace by Valentino, a coiffure by Alexandre, and a mint’s worth of diamonds and emeralds.”Photographed by Cecil Beaton, Vogue, January 15, 1972
When Guy Laroche, Dessès’s assistant, departed to start his own couture house, Valentino joined him for a few years before leaving to work briefly with the Russian-Georgian Princess Irene Galitzine (Galitzine had made palazzo pajamas a thing, amidst opulent evening clothes). Then, in 1959, Valentino started his own house with backing from his father and a family friend.
In the meantime, someone had come into his life.