His birth name was Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani. To the world at large he was Valentino, the last emperor of fashion. The Chic. He passed away at one of his residences, in Rome, on Monday, January 19. He was 93 years old
Valentino was the definition of fashion, luxury, and pure aesthetics—you need only look to his collections for proof as much: simplicity distorted by a single theatrical touch (a bow, a puff, a neckline, a detail, a plunge bearing the heart). Look to that shade of red which takes his name to understand that he wasn’t just an excellent couturier (itself no small thing), he was a master of dreams devoted to beauty and enchantment. Beauty has always been the pinnacle to which Valentino relentlessly aspired, a passion he could not do without. And we are not just talking about red carpets or princess gowns, but the all-around beauty that permeated every moment of his life, flowing out of everything he did.
He was born on May 11, 1932, in Voghera, in the province of Milan. His father, Mauro Garavani, married Valentino’s mother, Teresa, and opened a barbershop before turning to a career in wholesaling electrical equipment, which guaranteed the family a certain affluence. In 1925 his mother gave birth to Valentino’s sister, Wanda, then, in 1932 came a baby boy who was given the same name as his paternal grandfather, Valentino.
The little boy went to school but was absent-minded, always hunched over books and filling the pages with endless drawings. He always loved to draw: he did it all the time. From those mountains of sketches came his wonderful ideas, recounting that the thunderbolt for fashion struck him very early, when he was six years old. That’s when the official engagement of Maria Francesca of Savoy, the last daughter of Victor Emmanuel III, to Prince Louis of Bourbon Parma was announced, with Maria dressed in a green lamé dress for the occasion. It was this sight that sparked an interest in fashion for young Garavani.
From there, he began spending more time in his aunt’s fabric store, making design his primary hobby. Which, of course, soon became more than a pastime. He’d eventually take a course in figurine design at the Santa Marta Institute in Milan. While pursuing his dreams Valentino enjoyed financial support of his father without much drama, even when he decided to move to Paris to further his education. Improvisation was not for him, he preferred to learn the fundamentals, get into the thick of things, make the art of the couturier his own. He enrolled in the prestigious school of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and was put in Jean Dessès’s workshop, where he learned everything about technical construction, fabrics and color relationships.
