Valentino, fashion designer to stars, has died at age 93
Legendary fashion designer Valentino Garavani, known simply as Valentino, has died, according to a post shared Monday on his Instagram page. He was 93.
"Valentino Garavani passed away today at his Roman residence, surrounded by his loved ones," the post read.
The post also shared details about his funeral arrangement, specifying that he will lie in state Wednesday, with the funeral to follow on Friday.
Valentino was born in 1932 in Voghera, in the Lombardy region of Italy. After a stint in Paris in his youth, where the now-iconic name in fashion first honed his skills, Valentino returned to Italy where he launched his now world-famous fashion house, Valentino, in the early 1960s, with help from his business and personal partner, Giancarlo Giammetti.
Valentino saw early success, collecting accolades including the 1967 Neiman Marcus Fashion Award, and designing a wedding dress for former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis in 1968. He went on to design wedding dresses for some of the world's most famous people.
As the business continued to grow alongside Valentino's reputation as a designer to the stars, the fashion house diversified their business, selling products including perfume.
The designer was honored many times during his storied career, according to his website, including receiving the Cavaliere di Gran Croce from the Italian government in 1986 for his contributions to Italian society, and the Cavaliere del Lavoro ten years later, for "exceptional and distinguished entrepreneurship in Italy."
"As a creator, beauty is the most important. Since I was a child I loved the way a dress looks, I admired a great face, a lovely body," Valentino told the online interview magazine The Talks in 2011. "I enjoy the beauty in a woman, in a man, in a child, in a painting. Beautiful things are important and make life important. Since I was a kid I’ve been encouraging myself to appreciate beauty."
Asked about his ability to develop good relationships through his work with so many different celebrities of his time, Valentino said, "I have to love my collection; I have to create my own personal things for the season. If I like it, then movie stars and the ladies around me are also very fond of it."
