Italian couturier Valentino Garavani’s death at 93 closes one of the most luminous chapters in 20th to 21st century fashion, forcing the industry to confront what couture will now mean without one of its most defining architects.
Valentino died on Jan. 19, 2026, at his residence in Rome. For decades, Valentino stood at the center of Italy’s fashion’s golden age, helping secure Rome and Milan a permanent place as global luxury capitals, alongside Paris. According to Euronews, he worked with his longtime business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, as he built one of the first Italian fashion houses to rival French couture. Even taking the brand public on the Milan stock exchange, which was a rarity at the time.
The New York Times reports that obituaries and tributes have repeatedly addressed him as the “Last Emperor,” a reference both to his near‑royal stature and to the broader waning of a generation that also included Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace. His death, coming after the recent loss of other Italian legends, prompts the question of whether the old “Made in Italy” model can survive in an era of global conglomerates.
News of Valentino’s death immediately cast a shadow over Paris Fashion Week, where editors and designers described him as one of the last figures who truly embodied 20th century couture. AP News cites that fashion leaders and celebrities flooded social media with tributes, recalling not only his gowns but his almost old-world devotion to making women feel beautiful.
Supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer shared memories in Vogue of walking his runways and starring in cinematic campaigns that helped define the visual language of luxury in the 1980s and 1990s. Hollywood figures, from Gwyneth Paltrow to younger stars who wore archival Valentino on contemporary red carpets, framed him as a mentor and friend as much as a designer.
Valentino officially retired from designing couture almost two decades ago, but his presence continued to loom over his eponymous fashion house and the wider industry. Under creative successors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Alessandro Michele, the brand used its codes, from Valentino red to sculpted ballgowns, as raw material for a more experimental, youth‑oriented vision.
His death removes the living link between the contemporary Valentino label and the man whose name it bears, intensifying pressure on the fashion house to balance reverence with reinvention. More broadly, it underscores how few true couturiers remain at major luxury houses, accelerating a shift toward fashion as a corporate, data‑driven business rather than an auteur’s workshop.
According to CNN, Valentino’s legacy is both a benchmark and a challenge for younger designers; he proved that an unmistakable visual language—one color, one silhouette, one idea of glamour—could resonate across generations and continents. As sustainable fashion, digital shows, and streetwear‑driven aesthetics reshape the industry, his work stands as a reminder that fashion can still aspire to the level of ceremony and permanence once reserved for the opera or architecture.
ABC reports that Valentino is lying in Rome and his funeral at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and of the Martyrs is likely to serve as a rare, public rite of mourning for a designer whose name became shorthand for red‑carpet dreams. In the longer view, the true measure of his influence will be how often, in the years to come, runways and red carpets still seem to be chasing the ideal of beauty that he spent a lifetime perfecting.