Fashion farewell Mourning black, with a splash of red, for Valentino

“The red dress,” said Valentino Garavani in 1992, “is always magnificent.” This week, following the announcement of the designer’s death at the age of 93, the red dress - and the particular shade of red used by Valentino - is back in the spotlight.

- Lauren Cochrane

To honour Garavani, the cover of Vogue Italia’s February issue - out this month - will be a take on Valentino red, while Donatella Versace wore a bright red suit when she went to pay tribute to her fellow designer, as he lay in state in Rome on Thursday.

If the majority of mourners at his funeral yesterday - including Anne Hathaway, Anna Wintour, Versace and Tom Ford - wore black, Damian Hurley, son of Elizabeth, accessorised with a bright red scarf.

Garavani produced his first red dress in his first collection in 1959. Called Fiesta, it is a strapless gown decorated with a series of roses across a full skirt. He was famously inspired by the sight of an older woman at the opera wearing a red dress, and how she stood out from the crowd.

It was this impact that arguably saw the designer continue to use the colour through his career, says Alistair O’Neill, the curator of Somerset House’s Valentino: Master of Couture 2012 exhibition. But, as images of women wearing Valentino’s dresses testify, the particular shade - scarlet, with a hint of blue - was key. “It’s a tone that works across a range of skin colours and it makes nearly all women look great,” says O'Neill.

“I think that’s because it’s a very pure and clean colour but it has a luminosity about it”