Valentino Garavani 1932-2026

"I love beauty it's not my fault," Valentino famously said. Hamish Bowles remembers a monumental life that redefined fashion and style.

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ON THE BALL DIANA VREELAND AND VALENTINO, PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART GALA IN 1982.

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani—known, simply and powerfully, as Valentino—was born on May 11, 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 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 1950 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, was a client, 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.