It is with great sadness that the fashion world mourns the loss of the founder of one of the most universally recognized fashion houses: Valentino Garavani.
There is a longstanding belief amongst the critics of the internet that you can always tell when a designer truly understood and cared about the women they were designing for. Valentino, out of many of the famous names of the fashion world, most certainly did. He once stated, “I know what women want. They want to be beautiful.” His designs, pure expressions of an artistic and cultured education, have always drawn the eyes and patronage of many famous women who each desired to get the chance at wearing a Valentino.
Valentino did not become a designer by accident. He chose early on to study fashion and French while he was in college at École des Beaux Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, where his professional career began. Even before then, a young Valentino Garavani had strict ideas of aestheticism. A story from his childhood recounts how he once began to cry when his mother attempted to make him wear a bow tie which he believed would disrupt the composition of his outfit. Long before fashion became his formal study and work, Valentino already had his mind on the appeal of couture.
After college, Valentino went on to work under designer Jean Dessès. Over his seven years there, Valentino pursued his own projects and designs.
Valentino’s career flourished from celebrity endorsement, especially from collaborating with the film industry. His designs for Monica Vitti in the film La Notte, and Elizabeth Taylor’s dress for the opening night of Spartacus in 1961 drew wide attention to his work. Even into his old age he was well known for his celebrity friendships, such as his with Anne Hathaway. Very notably, he was the designer behind Jackie Kennedy’s dress at her wedding to Aristotle Onassis. Valentino was pragmatic; he understood that working with the film industry would help him to grow his popularity and audience. Valentino even shot one of his summer collections on the set of Fellini’s film 8½. He understood that the exposure he would get from his film collaborations was incomparable to any sort of fashion show or editorial mention.
Valentino had what people describe as an authentic Italian flair. However, Valentino also understood the art of contrast and standing out even when it came to his own heritage. In 1967, with the debut of the “No Color” collection, he set a huge contrast between his work and the work of other Italian designers, such as Emilio Pucci, who at the time focused on bold and bright colors that instantly garnered attention. This collection even won Valentino the Neiman Marcus Award.
Valentino became an icon of the fashion industry from then on. His signature design was an experimentation of layering fabrics and materials to create a cultured and sophisticated look with a timeless silhouette. He wasn’t seeking to create clothes that would be revealing in a crass way, which made his clothes so appealing. He kept his collections ladylike, so that even when the dresses were very short there was an elegance to them. His signature raised waistline contributed greatly to this. Valentino did not try to destroy the pillars of haute couture, instead he developed his own ideas around what looks should walk down the runway, taking what was already an accepted style in fashion and contributing his own artistic flair.
Though Valentino became famous once for his “No Color” collection, many people know him today for his signature color of “Valentino Red.” The color, in fact, is also interwoven with Valentino Garavani’s love of culture and art. On a visit from Barcelona he was greatly inspired by the interiors of the cathedrals he saw there. In short, the birth of “Valentino Red” came from — just like many other things Valentino — a love of aestheticism.
Valentino opened his first store in 1960 in Milan and spent decades honing his craft. In 1998, he sold his fashion house, but remained on as the creative director until his retirement in 2007. It took a while for someone to take his place, a credit to how impactful and creative his design abilities were. Him remaining on as creative director was not just about maintaining control over the brand; everyone understood that he was irreplaceable in his work.
Valentino was not just a designer, he was an embodiment of the Italian-aesthetic culture and of 20th-century fashion itself. Taking influence from a huge breadth of designers from France and even from Spanish architecture, Valentino crafted an image that was all his own. He understood elegance and class better than anyone; he was a lover of aestheticism and he truly knew that dressing women required a certain refinement. That is why he was the favorite designer of so many celebrities and socialites for many years. Valentino remains not just as a brand name on popular accessories, but also as a symbol of what attention to detail and a constant drive towards a cultivation of culture and class can produce.
Lusine Boyadzhyan is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at lboyadzhyan@cornellsun.com.
