Valentino

Valentino was founded in 1960 in Rome by Valentino Garavani and his lifelong business partner Giancarlo Giammetti, who set up an atelier on Via Condotti and built the house around couture made in Rome with exceptional embroidery, lace, and the singular red later trademarked as Rosso Valentino. The 1968 white collection, the 1991 Jackie Kennedy wedding dress, and the long parade of red-carpet gowns through the 1980s defined the house as the Italian alternative to Paris couture. The Valentino vocabulary has been continuously rewritten by the post-Garavani designers — Alessandra Facchinetti (briefly), then the Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli duo from 2008, then Piccioli solo from 2016. Piccioli's tenure recoded Valentino as a house of saturated colour, painterly silhouette, hand embroidery, and a deeply specific kind of Roman emotional gravity. Piccioli departed in 2024; Alessandro Michele was named creative director in spring 2024 and presented his first collection in March 2025. Valentino is owned by Mayhoola for Investments (Qatar) since 2012, with Kering acquiring a 30 percent stake in 2023. The house operates flagships in Rome (Piazza di Spagna), Milan (Via Montenapoleone), Paris (Avenue Montaigne), Tokyo (Ginza, Omotesando), New York (Fifth Avenue, Soho), and the Maison Valentino global retail network of around 220 stores. Few houses have managed such an architecturally complete brand voice across three distinct creative-director eras while remaining culturally legible.