The fashion world is mourning an icon today.
Valentino Garavanti’s foundation announced his death on Instagram this morning.
In 1968, Jackie Kennedy stepped out to wed her infamous shipping magnate groom in a short lace dress chosen off-the-rack from Italian fashion designer and rising star Valentino Garavani.
Even with an intimate Greek island setting and 40 person guest list, the world was enamoured, and Valentino was solidified a fashion legend.
Valentino would continue dressing the world’s most famous women for decades, from the likes of Princess Diana to Kim K, and despite being urged by Kennedy to live 100 years, came close at 93.
Valentino will lie in state near the Spanish steps of Rome on Wednesday and Thursday, an act reserved only for figures of massive national significance.
Tributes around the world are calling his death “the end of an era”.
View this post on Instagram
The news comes just months after Italian designer icon Giorgio Armani died at his home in Milan last September, and who also lay in state.
Both men were among the last of the great designers of a generation that redefined elegance.
Mr Garavani once told The New Yorker he hoped to be “remembered as a man who pursued beauty wherever he could.”
That you will, Valentino.
