Valentino: A Perfectly Cut Dress of Fragrance

“Beauty is very important. I love beauty. Beauty has always been my religion.”
— Valentino Garavani​

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Essential Information

• Established: 1960; the first atelier opened in 1959
• Founders: Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti
• Headquarters: Rome, Italy
• Current creative director: Alessandro Michele, since April 2024​
• Fragrance license: L’Oréal Group, since January 2019​
• Official beauty website: https://www.valentino-beauty.us

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The Founders and the Origins of the House

A Boy Who Dreamed: From Voghera to Paris

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born on May 11, 1932, in Voghera, Lombardy, in northern Italy, to Mauro Garavani and Teresa de Biaggi. His sister Wanda was seven years older. His mother Teresa named him Valentino after Rudolph Valentino, the great silent-film star of the 1920s. As he later recalled, he had always lived in a world of imagination from childhood.​

“I do not know whether I was a normal person. I was always dreaming endlessly about everything.”
— Valentino Garavani​

His interest in fashion had already emerged in primary school. Apprenticeships with his aunt Rosa and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo helped cultivate his sensitivity to beautiful things. As a boy, he enjoyed going to the theater and opera, and the sumptuous costumes onstage particularly captured his imagination.​

“I was fascinated by those evening dresses, the sequins, everything that sparkled. And I realized that designing was my path.”
— Valentino Garavani, in conversation with Fern Mallis, 2014​

At 17, with his parents’ support, he moved to Paris. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, receiving a thorough grounding in the foundations of fashion.

Learning from the Masters of Paris

After completing his studies, Valentino spent his apprenticeship years in the houses of Paris. He first worked for Jacques Fath, then gained experience in the ateliers of Balenciaga and Jean Dessès. During around five years with Dessès, he honed practical skills through work such as sketching dresses for Countess Jacqueline de Ribes. In 1956, he joined the atelier of his friend Guy Laroche.​

After around ten years in Paris, having thoroughly absorbed the traditions of French haute couture, Valentino resolved to build his own kingdom of beauty.

Rome: The Birth of His Own House

In 1959, Valentino left Paris and returned to Rome, opening his first atelier on the glamorous Via Condotti with his father’s support. According to his father, its interiors resembled a Parisian maison de haute couture, and Valentino’s commitment was such that he brought models over from Paris for the debut show. His first haute couture collection was called Ibis.

Another history-making event took place that year. In his spring/summer 1959 collection, Valentino presented La Fiesta, a strapless tulle dress. This vivid red dress was the starting point of Rosso Valentino, or Valentino Red, which would later become a symbol of the house.

His passion for red had its origins in a childhood experience: attending a performance of Bizet’s Carmen at an opera house in Barcelona.

“All the costumes onstage were red… Most of the women in the boxes were also dressed in red, leaning forward like geraniums on a balcony. The seats and curtains were red… I realized that, after black and white, there was no color more beautiful.”
— Valentino Garavani​

Above all, a red velvet dress worn by a beautiful silver-haired woman in one of the boxes left a deep impression on the young Valentino. From then on, he continued to include a red dress in every collection, and in 1985 the name Valentino Red formally became established in the industry. The color was later recognized as an official color by Pantone, with a mixture of 100% magenta, 100% yellow, and 10% black, and the house’s archives are said to hold at least 550 variations of red.

A Fateful Encounter: Giancarlo Giammetti

On July 31, 1960, Valentino had a fateful encounter with Giancarlo Giammetti at the Café de Paris on Rome’s Via Veneto. Giammetti was then a 22-year-old architecture student. That day, he drove Valentino home in his Fiat, before leaving for a holiday on Capri the following day. By coincidence, Valentino was also heading to Capri, and they met again on the island ten days later.

That encounter marked the beginning of one of the longest and most fruitful partnerships in fashion history. They were also romantic partners for 12 years, and after their romantic relationship ended, they continued their journey together as business partners for at least 65 years.

“We were together. Each of us was the other’s strength. That was our real capital.”
— Giancarlo Giammetti​

Giammetti arrived at a moment of crisis. Valentino’s excessive spending had caused his father’s business partner to withdraw, leaving the house on the brink of bankruptcy. Giammetti left university and took sole responsibility for the business side, creating an arrangement that allowed Valentino to concentrate on his designs. This complete separation of creativity and management became the foundation of Maison Valentino’s success.

Valentino himself later said:

“There are only three things I can do: make dresses, decorate houses, and entertain people.”
— Valentino Garavani​

Establishing an International Reputation

In 1962, he presented a haute couture collection in the Sala Bianca of Florence’s Palazzo Pitti, attracting international attention.​

In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy, former First Lady of the United States, encountered Valentino’s work. Drawn to a black organza ensemble worn by her friend Gloria Schiff, she asked who had designed it. Kennedy ordered six Valentino haute couture dresses, wearing them during her period of mourning after the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy. She became a loyal client, and Valentino also designed the wedding dress she wore for her 1968 marriage to Aristotle Onassis.

In 1968, he presented his all-white White Collection, which Vogue hailed as “the talk of all Europe.” By 1986, the house had become Italy’s largest fashion exporter, with international sales reaching $385 million.​

Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, Joan Collins, and Princess Diana: the world’s most glamorous women wore Valentino.

Retirement and an Enduring Legacy

In 1998, Valentino and Giammetti sold the house to the Italian conglomerate HdP for around $300 million. It subsequently passed through the Marzotto Group and private-equity firm Permira before being acquired in 2012 by the Qatari investment fund Mayhoola for Investments. In 2023, it was announced that Kering would become a major shareholder in Maison Valentino.

Valentino announced his retirement in September 2007. His final haute couture show, held at the Musée Rodin in Paris in January 2008, received a five-minute standing ovation, with legendary supermodels including Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, and Eva Herzigová in attendance. In the finale, every model walked the runway in a red dress: a magnificent final curtain colored in Valentino Red.

On January 19, 2026, Valentino Garavani died peacefully at his home in Rome, surrounded by his family, at the age of 93. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni mourned him as an “undisputed master of style,” while The New York Times called him “the last great couturier of the 20th century.”

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The House’s Commitments

A Philosophy of Fragrance: An Extension of Haute Couture

For Valentino, fragrance was never simply a product line. It was a natural extension of haute couture: intimate, refined, and profoundly personal.​

“Elegance is a balance of proportion, emotion, and surprise.”
— Valentino Garavani​

These words apply just as readily to fragrance as to clothing. Valentino perfumes are made not to dominate a room, but to linger in the memory. Like a perfectly cut gown, they are a gesture that speaks quietly, yet with conviction.​

Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Three Codes

Pierpaolo Piccioli, who served as creative director from 2008 to March 2024, gave the house’s beauty division a decisive direction. He put forward three codes: Colour, Cool, and Couture.

“You do not need a new bag or a new item. What you need is a new emotion and a new dream: that is what fashion is for.”
— Pierpaolo Piccioli​

This philosophy became the core of the fragrance line relaunched in 2019 under the partnership with L’Oréal. Every fragrance is designed to express a trinity of vivid color (Colour), unexpected freshness (Cool), and the refinement of couture (Couture).​

Bottle Design: The Rockstud Motif

The pyramid-shaped Rockstud decoration on Valentino’s signature fragrance bottles was inspired by Roman architecture. The studs adorning Rome’s doors and walls are part of the house’s fashion iconography, an emblematic design motif that can instantly transform a bag or shoe from classic to contemporary. The bottles embody the spirit of “Pink is Punk,” with the contrast between black leather and vivid pink creating an edgy personality.

The Evolution of the Fragrance License

Valentino’s fragrance business has developed through several licensing partners. After Unilever, Procter & Gamble in 2005, and Spain’s Puig in 2010, France’s L’Oréal acquired the worldwide license for fragrances and luxury beauty from January 2019.

When the license was acquired, L’Oréal Deputy CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said:

“With its rare combination of prestige and modernity, Valentino will certainly appeal to millennial consumers around the world.”
— Nicolas Hieronimus, Deputy CEO of L’Oréal​

With this transition, the entire Puig-era fragrance catalog was discontinued, and a completely new line was built under L’Oréal. This strategic reset led to the success of the current fragrance portfolio centered on Born in Roma.​

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The Fragrance Lineup

The Legacy of the Puig Era, 2010–2018

Even before L’Oréal, Valentino had created many memorable scents. Its first fragrance, Valentino, was introduced in 1978. The unveiling was a spectacular event at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, featuring ballet choreographed by Roland Petit to Tchaikovsky’s music and a debut performance by Mikhail Baryshnikov: a presentation truly worthy of haute couture.​

The following principal lines were introduced under the partnership with Puig:

• Valentina (2011): A floral oriental inspired by Rome and the flavors of Italy. Created by perfumers Alberto Morillas and Olivier Cresp, it combines Calabrian bergamot, white truffle from Alba, and Amalfi orange blossom. Model Freja Beha Erichsen was the face of the campaign.
• Donna (2015): An expression of sophisticated femininity centered on Bulgarian rose and iris. Powdery and floral, it translates into fragrance the grace of couture fabric falling naturally against the skin.
• Uomo (2014): A men’s fragrance evoking intelligence and warmth, interweaving characteristically Italian materials such as iris, coffee, and gianduja, or hazelnut chocolate.

The L’Oréal Era’s Flagship: The Born in Roma Collection

Launched in 2019, Born in Roma is the defining pillar of Valentino fragrance under L’Oréal. Under Piccioli’s creative direction, it was designed as a celebration of self-expression and inclusivity, centered on the concept of Rome as a city where past and present coexist.

The principal fragrances in the Born in Roma collection are as follows:

Line	Type	Principal notes
Born in Roma Donna	EDP	Jasmine sambac, Cashmeran, Bourbon vanilla​
Born in Roma Donna Intense	EDP Intense	A rich embrace of vanilla and jasmine​
Born in Roma Uomo	EDT	Violet leaf, sage, smoked vetiver​
Born in Roma Uomo Intense	EDP Intense	Lavandin, vanilla infusion​
Yellow Dream (Donna / Uomo)	Limited edition	Rose petals (Donna), spicy oriental (Uomo)​
Coral Fantasy (Donna / Uomo)	Limited edition	Kiwi and jasmine (Donna), red apple and tobacco (Uomo)​
Green Stravanganza (Donna / Uomo)	Limited edition	Lapsang souchong tea (Donna), coffee accord (Uomo)​

Each fragrance bottle is designed around the three codes of Colour, Cool, and Couture. Rockstud caps, vivid colors, and refined silhouettes embody the house’s DNA.

Voce Viva: A Fragrance Called Voice

Introduced in 2020, Voce Viva is a floral woody musk fragrance whose Italian name means “the voice is alive.” It was created by perfumers Honorine Blanc and Amandine Clerc-Marie (in Japanese).

It comprises top notes of Calabrian bergamot, heart notes of couture orange blossom and golden gardenia, and base notes of Madagascan vanilla and crystal moss. Internationally renowned singer and actress Lady Gaga was chosen for the campaign. Her selection was no accident: a woman who had changed the world through her own voice and individuality perfectly echoed the fragrance’s concept of celebrating every woman’s voice.

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Incidentally…

• The red Mercedes incident: In the 1970s, when the terrorist organization the Red Brigades was carrying out frequent kidnappings in Italy, Valentino drove a bulletproof Mercedes. Its color was, of course, red. Women’s Wear Daily editor John Fairchild is said to have remarked in exasperation, “In that color, he might as well be asking to be blown up.”​
• Six pugs: A great dog lover, Valentino owned no fewer than six pugs. When traveling in his 14-seat private jet, three cars reportedly went to the airport: one for the staff and luggage, one for five of the pugs, and one for Giammetti, Valentino, and his beloved dog Maude.​
• Film appearances: He made a cameo as himself in the hit 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. The documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor, released in 2008, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and helped spark the boom in fashion documentaries.​
• The first perfume began with a grand spectacle: The launch of the first fragrance in 1978 took place at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Featuring ballet choreographed by Roland Petit and an appearance by Mikhail Baryshnikov, it was a lavish spectacle far removed from an ordinary perfume launch.​​

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