Valentino the designer who turned fabric into dreams has just made his exit. He passed on January 19, 2026, at 93 in his beloved Rome. Upon his passing, the colour of the fashion world seems to have lost its sparkle that can’t quite be replaced.
He went by just Valentino. A single name that somehow held everything he was. He grew up with this almost movie-like vision of what glamour could be. Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in 1932, in a small Italian town called Voghera. After studying in Paris and learning from the best couture houses, he returned to Rome in his mid-twenties. Once in Rome, he opened his own studio in 1960 with Giancarlo Giammetti, his business partner and the love of his life.
Right from the get-go, Valentino’s focus was more on grace than clothes. He strived to build things that were meant to last forever. Clothes that lived in the past but blended with current time perfectly. It felt like something you already knew, yet somehow hadn’t seen done this well before. A gentle reminder that elegance doesn’t disappear when trends get loud. It simply steps back, waits its turn, and lets the world eventually come back to it.
Then, Valentino introduced the colour red in a big way. To him red was a language. A shade balanced between carmine and scarlet. Not only did it emerge from opera seats and the way a woman carried herself through the streets of Barcelona. But it was how it spoke about women without saying a word. He believed a woman in red possessed power. To him, red meant courage and glamour that was unapologetic.
For almost half a century, Valentino quietly wrote poetry in fabric. Stitch by stitch, collection by collection, letting beauty speak where words never could. His gowns dressed and conversed with women at the same time. Big names like Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana, Julia Roberts wore his clothes. These ladies walked into rooms and became unforgettable. He dress them by bringing out their personalities.
But Valentino stayed surprisingly down to earth through it all. People close to him saw someone who loved beauty. Someone who understood the price of it. He looked for elegance in everything he created. When he walked onto that Paris runway for his final couture show in 2008, it felt like he was saying: here’s everything I have, now it’s yours. Later on, he and Giammetti started the Valentino Foundation. They put together exhibitions and supported the arts. Although retired, he never stopped being curious about how beauty is made or feels.
The tributes have been pouring in from everywhere. Designers, models and people who just loved what he did. He is remembered as a quiet force with a singular vision. Italy’s prime minister called him “an undisputed maestro of eternal style,” but his friends knew him as someone whose laugh could fill a room and whose eye never stopped searching for beauty.
Valentino didn’t just showcase dresses. He demonstrated why women want to feel beautiful in the first place. His death isn’t just an ending. It’s one of fashion’s greatest storytellers going quiet. And in every red dress, every perfectly placed seam, his voice is still echos.
