Loyalty is a term that easily defines the professional and personal trajectory of Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, which extends to a close-knit posse of friends — who just happen to be some of the most famous people in the world.
The commitment to one another has spanned more than 65 years and Giammetti believes the couturier’s faithfulness to his own style formed a cornerstone of his success.
“As with all the greatest designers, from [Gabrielle] Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent to Giorgio Armani, he was loyal to an image of a woman who wanted to be liked and liked herself, who felt stronger and ready to face the world when wearing Valentino,” Giammetti said.
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Rarely has a partnership been as long-lasting and successful as that between Garavani and Giammetti and their enduring impact and influence on fashion across generations is why they are the recipients of this year’s WWD John B. Fairchild Honor for Lifetime Achievement, bestowed Monday evening in New York.
The legendary publisher dubbed Garavani “The Chic,” and the designer certainly embodied the elegance he conveyed in his classy designs, together with Giammetti — both always impeccably coiffed, permanently tanned and stylishly suited, whether on their yacht in the Mediterranean Sea or the slopes of Gstaad, their apartments in New York of London, or their homes in Rome.
Giammetti’s business acumen across the decades helped build a global empire leveraging Garavani’s creative vision, starting from a casual meeting in Rome, at the end of July 1960, sharing a table in a bar on Via Veneto — where else? — the heart of la Dolce Vita. “That’s when my life changed,” Garavani has said.
Perhaps it was written in the stars. Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Voghera, near Milan, on May 11, 1932, named after silent movie actor Rudolph Valentino. In fact, from his namesake he inherited another nickname — “the Sheik” — a reference to the actor’s famous role in the film of the same name.
Giammetti was born in Rome six years later, on Feb. 5, and, when he met Garavani, he was pursuing his studies at the Facoltà di Architettura Sapienza, Università di Roma. “I knew nothing of fashion, I would just watch my mother get dressed,” admitted Giammetti, “but I immediately perceived Valentino’s passion and talent.”
Garavani enrolled at the Berlitz School in Milan to learn French, and at the Istituto di Moda Santa Marta to work on his drawing skills. He shocked his bourgeois parents when, at age 17, he said he was going to go and live in Paris. There he studied at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, where he attended courses taught by a former head seamstress at Dior.
In 1952 he started working at the couture house of Jean Dessès, first as an illustrator and then joining the studio. Five years later, he was hired as a designer at Guy Laroche. He stayed on for two years and then decided to venture out on his own. Aged only 26, Valentino’s first collection bowed on Feb. 28, 1959, in his salons on Via Condotti in Rome.
“I would dream about beautiful women, extremely sophisticated, all made up with beautiful jewelry and dresses. I think, from that time on, I decided to be a fashion designer. The movie that did it was ‘Ziegfeld Girl,’” Garavani said of the 1941 American musical drama film starring Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner.
“He had a cinematographic sense of fashion, and the sequins, those beautiful and extraordinary women from the movies inspired his career,” Giammetti concurred.
In July 1962, Valentino was one of the designers showing at the Sala Bianca of Pitti Palace, a platform that contributed to launch the brand internationally.
Giammetti’s admiration for Garavani was reciprocated by the designer. “I immediately recognized in Giancarlo his ambition, his pride. He is just like a toro [bull], going straight ahead into the toreador’s red cape. With my first collection, I had no one to tell me to go to Florence. With Giancarlo, we realized we had to show there. My career really started there. We got fantastic reviews. The buyers bought and bought until one in the morning,” the designer recalled.
By then Valentino had moved into what would become the brand’s storied headquarters on Via Gregoriana in Palazzo Mignanelli, the Renaissance palace built around 1575 near Rome’s landmark Spanish Steps.
Global Recognition
The world of cinema so dear to Garavani started to approach the designer. In 1961, Monica Vitti became the first actress to wear a Valentino dress on the big screen in “La Notte,” directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.
Looking back, Giammetti said “we could have done more” with costume design, ticking off the 1963 film “The Pink Panther,” dressing Claudia Cardinale, and the 1974 movie “The Driver’s Seat,” where Andy Warhol had a cameo. Elizabeth Taylor was the lead actress in that movie, wearing Valentino, as she did in “Ash Wednesday,” the 1973 film directed by Larry Peerce, in which she wore Valentino designs nine times.
Taylor had begun to wear Valentino off-screen while filming “Cleopatra” in Rome and became one of Garavani and Giammetti’s best lifelong friends. Together, with her contribution, in 1990 they established the L.I.F.E., a charity to support children affected by AIDS, and Taylor took on its patronage. They would go on to flank the actress in her own work fighting AIDS. While smiling and recalling her “epic fights” with her husband actor Richard Burton, whom she married and divorced twice, Giammetti enthused about Taylor’s devotion to helping people.
The actress was one of the women who contributed to Garavani’s success, along with Diana Vreeland and Jackie Kennedy, said Giammetti — as well as several high society women who quickly became part of the duo’s circle as well.
By 1964, Valentino’s clients ranged from Jacqueline de Ribes in Paris and Marella Agnelli in Rome to Babe Paley in New York and Countess Consuelo Crespi and her sister Gloria Schiff. In September that year, Schiff wore a black organza two-piece Valentino set to an event attended by Jackie Kennedy, who then requested a private viewing of the collection. Garavani has called this encounter “the biggest gift of my life.” She ordered all the designs in black and white, “as she was still in her year of mourning,” explained Giammetti, following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas in 1963.
“She was our ideal woman, kind and fun,” Giammetti said of Jackie Kennedy.
In January 1969, Valentino presented the Gypsy Collection with a soundtrack — an innovation for a fashion show at the time — and influenced by Broadway and stemming from Vreeland, who he had met in 1964. She introduced “the boys” — as she called the designer and Giammetti — to New York.
Communicating Valentino-style
While fashion and luxury brands now generally have structured organizations with several layers of key C-suite executives, Giammetti was Garavani’s alter ego, in charge of a wide range of responsibilities, from finance and show production to marketing and communication.
“We always looked for quality, also with small budgets,” Giammetti said, proudly ticking off the innovative and “extraordinary” ad campaigns photographed by the likes of Steven Meisel, Gian Paolo Barbieri, Helmut Newton, Horst P. Horst, Oliviero Toscani, Herb Ritts, Satoshi Saikusa, Mario Testino, David Sims, Deborah Turbeville and more.
While Giammetti’s business savvy combined with Garavani’s design prowess propelled the brand to global success, Giammetti admitted “the creative part was the most fun,” referring to the production of shows, campaigns and events.
“Formerly, fashion photography existed, but not fashion advertising photography as we know it today,” Giammetti explained. “The ads that used to run were for the great fabric houses such as Clerici, Abraham or Taroni, who would present Balenciaga, Christian Dior and others together under their name. In 1967, I had the idea that the headlines should mention Valentino rather than the fabric house, but the fabric house still paid.”
Valentino’s first ad campaign was photographed by Barbieri, lensing Mirella Petteni posing among “tons of semolina dunes,” recalled Giammetti, since the collection had a Middle Eastern inspiration. Memories of this set actually inspired Giammetti to recreate a similar desert-themed scenography for Valentino’s spring couture show in Paris in 2006.
In Matt Tyrnauer’s “The Last Emperor” docufilm on Garavani, the couturier is seen talking with Giammetti, disagreeing about the latter’s choice for the set of that show.
“I was always looking for quality and fun elements, avoiding stiffness at all costs, but there was no AI or the internet to help out. I would sketch down the ideas and Valentino would come in at the 11th hour, often complaining about things being too sexy, or too dark or not aligned with the collection. But this difference of opinion was vital, the lifeblood of the brand,” Giammetti said.
“In the end he liked the dunes on the catwalk,” he shrugged, smiling.
Red, All-white Collections — and Jackie Kennedy
Valentino is also known for the use of the color red, symbolizing “life, passion, love and the cure for sadness,” Garavani has repeatedly said and the tale is that he was captivated as a young man at the Barcelona Opera by a beautiful woman in a red velvet dress. That said, the designer’s all-white collection in 1968 made history and Jackie Kennedy on Oct. 20 of that year chose a knee-length silk crepe Valentino dress from that “Sfilata Bianca” collection to marry Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. It featured a high-neck lace and chiffon overlay and a pleated skirt, while the long sleeves were detailed with white and gold buttons on the cuffs.
“Sure, she was married to the U.S. president and then to a tycoon, but we became friends and always had a lot of fun, with Ari, too,” said Giammetti, recalling for example days spent together in Capri.
They shared with the icon an appreciation of art, design and style. Garavani’s and Giammetti’s passion for decor and rare objects is infused in their beautiful homes around the world, from Capri to Rome, designed by Renzo Mongiardino, New York, London and Gstaad. In 1995, the Château de Wideville, built in 1580, was purchased and French interior designer Henri Samuel was tasked to decorate it. Located 20 kilometers from Versailles, it used to be the residence of Madame de la Vallière, Louis XIV’s mistress.
Giammetti also singled out the brown and white collection, which Garavani described as “the best I ever did in my life” and which received the Neiman Marcus Award in 1967. That same year saw the debut of the brand’s first menswear collection, Valentino Uomo.
As the brand became more established and expanded, so did its retail network. In 1968, Valentino opened its first boutique in Paris, at 42 Avenue Montaigne, followed by openings a year later in Milan, then Rome and New York in 1970, London in 1974 and Tokyo in 1976.
Likewise, the product offering grew over the years to include several licenses, ranging from jeans and perfumes to home — the latter called Valentino Più. In 1980, there was even an Alfa Romeo Alfasud car designed by Valentino. In 1986, the designer’s beloved pug dog, Oliver, became a celebrity with a Valentino line bearing his name and likeness.
Ready-to-wear was produced first by French manufacturer Mendès in the 1970s and later by GFT, or Gruppo Finanziario Tessile, in Turin.
Asked if through the years he ever thought of venturing out on his own, Giammetti said it “only happened once. Valentino and I had been quarreling for personal reasons, and I was tempted to join [fashion designer best known for palazzo pajamas] Irene Galitzine and her husband Silvio Medici [Dè Menezes] because I was talking to them at that moment. But it literally lasted two minutes and I changed my mind.”
In April 1975, Valentino unveiled his ready-to-wear collection in Paris for the first time, rather than Rome, and the French capital would become the chosen venue going forward.
Accolades
The following decade further cemented the brand’s aura and prestige — cue the cover of Time in January 1982 with the 15-year-old Brooke Shields wearing a Valentino sweater with the tag line “The ‘80s Look.”
In September that year, invited by Vreeland, who was then a special consultant to the Costume Institute, Valentino staged his July couture collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — the first time a living designer had held a fashion show there. “We staged more than 30 mannequins on the staircase forming a giant V,” Giammetti recalled.
The event was attended by 1,000 people, including Warhol, Shields, Lauren Hutton, Marisa Berenson, Calvin Klein, Jerome Robbins, Liza Minnelli, Raquel Welch, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Plácido Domingo, while Muhammad Ali performed magic tricks, before dinner was served in the Temple of Dendur.
In July 1983, for the first time, Valentino staged a show outdoors at his headquarters in Piazza Mignanelli. Athletes opened the runway in Valentino-designed Olympic costumes for the 1984 Los Angeles Games, followed by the fashion collection. Three years later, the couturier paid a heartfelt tribute to his ateliers by inviting his 160 seamstresses, dressed in their white blouses, to join the models on the runway for the final walk. This would be something his successor Pierpaolo Piccioli would also honor.
In 1989, Valentino held its first haute couture show in Paris rather than in Rome.
“It became very difficult to keep asking the editors to come to Rome after Paris, just for Valentino. I went to Paris to see the shows, and saw the audience was much more fashion. At that moment, we decided to bring a couture collection to Paris. That’s how you do business,” said Giammetti. “Mr. Fairchild was one of the few that would travel to Rome to see our couture shows,” he recognized.
Giammetti recalled that Fairchild was a “genius and very generous, always looking for perfection,” but he admitted he complained to the much-feared publisher at times because he felt Valentino deserved more coverage and more covers. “It was disheartening — he always had an excuse ready. But in the end we went together on vacation sailing or in Gstaad.”
Dressing the Oscars
While Giammetti coyly downplayed his and Garavani’s jet-set life, there is no doubt it had a cinematic allure — and the movie world was never far. In 2003, they even played themselves in “The Devil Wears Prada,” directed by David Frankel.
“Dressing actresses was not a strategy. It was not, ‘now let’s go to Hollywood and let’s do a red carpet.’ The real reason is that we liked these kind of people. Maybe we are still under the spell of movie stars — especially Valentino,” Giammetti said.
“If I like it, then movie stars and the ladies around me are also very fond of it,” Garavani has said, referring to his designs, creations and style decisions.
In 1979, The Cirque d’Hiver, where Valentino presented in Paris, and Federico Fellini’s film “The Clowns” served as inspiration for the couturier’s birthday celebration at Studio 54 on Broadway and the designer arrived dressed as a circus ringmaster.
A long list of actors have received their Oscars dressed in Valentino, from Taylor, Sophia Loren, Jessica Lange, Mercedes Ruehl and Cate Blanchett to Tom Hanks, James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. Perhaps most famously, in 2001 Julia Roberts received the Oscar for Best Actress for “Erin Brockovich” in a 1992 vintage Valentino gown. A poll by British retailer Debenhams voted the design the “third most iconic red carpet dress of all time.” Garavani himself has repeatedly said Roberts wearing the gown was a high point of his career.
Further recognizing his long ties to Hollywood, in 1988 Garavani received the Gold Keys to the city of Beverly Hills, one of many accolades and honors he would be bestowed during his life, from Cavaliere di Gran Croce, to Cavaliere del Lavoro and Knight of the Legion of Honor. In 2009 he was inducted into the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, unveiling the plaque in his honor with Anne Hathaway, who remains a close friend.
In 2017, Garavani was also inducted into the American Academy of Achievement Hall of Fame, becoming the first European fashion designer to receive the honor, which recognizes visionaries and achievers across various fields.
New Phases
The end of the ‘90s ushered in a new era for the Valentino brand. In 1998, HdP, or Holding di Partecipazioni Industriali, a conglomerate controlled by Fiat, acquired the Valentino company for about $300 million. The investment company had bought GFT and aimed to create an Italian luxury goods group.
At the time Garavani said, “I am one of the first designers in Italy to do this and I am very sure there are other designers who will be following me very soon in one way or another,” adding that he was convinced his decision to sell to the financial giant was the best way to insure the continuity of the Valentino name — although he was so emotional as he unveiled the decision that he broke down and cried.
The agreement gave the designer and Giammetti minority stakes in HdP and seats on its steering committee and board of directors, both staying on with consultancy contracts.
But they were no longer in control of their own destinies, and the partnership was troubled from the beginning. And it would not last long.
“We thought [CEO Maurizio] Romiti’s offer was incredible. We always had the dream to create a big group, and there were the Agnellis [through Fiat], Mediobanca [backing HdP]. We wanted to expand through alliances, but unfortunately it did not work out — perhaps it was not managed with the utmost commitment,” Giammetti said discreetly.
In fact, aiming to divest its fashion interests to concentrate on its editorial and communication operations, HdP in 2002 sold Valentino to the Marzotto textile company, as part of the latter’s strategy to expand as a luxury goods player. The deal was followed by Marzotto spinning off its fashion assets, including Valentino and Hugo Boss, into a new group called Valentino Fashion Group in 2005.
As reflected by comments made by both Garavani and Giammetti in “The Last Emperor,” this deal also was unsatisfactory for them.
Giammetti asked during the interview not to dwell on this aspect of their past and simply said: “We felt our privacy was invaded and in 2007 we were out.”
But Garavani would exit the fashion scene with a show that remains iconic in fashion history. Over a two-day event ending July 8, 2007, to celebrate the house’s 45th anniversary, a fashion show was held in Rome, with a dinner held at the Temple of Venus. The “45 Years of Style” exhibition opened at the Ara Pacis Museum, followed by a ball at Villa Borghese’s Parco dei Daini for 950 guests, including Armani, Gina Lollobrigida, Mick Jagger and Karl Lagerfeld.
And more change would come. Shortly after the show, private equity group Permira acquired the company and on Sept. 4, 2007, Garavani and Giammetti exited the brand.
“Adieu. The great event that celebrated my 45 years of work in Rome in July was a magical and unrepeatable moment. Thus, I have decided that this is the perfect moment to say goodbye to the fashion world,” Garavani said at the time.
Before retiring, Garavani held his final couture collection at the Rodin Museum in January 2008.
The brand the duo founded changed hands again following their departure: Permira sold it to its current owner, Qatar-backed Mayhoola, in 2012. Over the years, the lead creative role has been held by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, who the designer hired in 1999 as creative directors of accessories, then Piccioli alone, followed by Alessandro Michele, who was appointed in March 2024.
Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti, or PM23
Today, Garavani and Giammetti are focused on their namesake foundation, which has acquired the exclusive use of a historic Roman palazzo at 23 Piazza Mignanelli, fully renovated and renamed PM23. The venue will serve as a hub for the foundation’s cultural activities and events and was inaugurated last May with the exhibition “Horizons | Red,” displaying 50 red dresses with a range of 30 art masterpieces — some belonging to Garavani and Giammetti, who have always been keen collectors.
The foundation was established in 2016 as an entity with a philanthropic mission, and after one year of conservative restoration works as a multidisciplinary space covering 10,800 square feet, PM23 is the “beating heart of the cultural activities of the Fondazione,” Giammetti said. It is committed to three key pillars: the support of social and philanthropic initiatives; enhancing the arts and culture, and talent education and backing.
“This is the beginning of a new moment in our lives,” Giammetti said.
