Paris Mourns Valentino, Last Titan Of Couture
Italian couturier Valentino Garavani died at 93, prompting tributes at Paris Fashion Week and marking the end of a couture era.
ABC NewsParis mourns Valentino, the last titan of couture’s golden age
Chicago TribuneParis mourns Valentino, the last titan of couture’s golden age
Associated PressParis mourns Valentino, the last titan of couture’s golden age
NewsmaxParis Mourns Valentino, the Last Titan of Couture's Golden Age
Overview
LEAD: Valentino Garavani, the Italian couturier, died at age 93 at his Rome residence, the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation said, and his death cast a long shadow over the opening day of Paris Fashion Week menswear on Tuesday.
CONTEXT: Valentino founded his Rome-based maison on Via Condotti in 1959 after training in Milan and Paris and built a more-than-six-decade career that fixed his signature 'Valentino red' in the public imagination and dressed clients including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor.
RESPONSE: Pierre Groppo, fashion editor-in-chief at Vanity Fair France, said Valentino "was one of the last big couturiers who really embodied what was fashion in the 20th century," and front-row guests and figures such as Luke Leitch and Lolo Zhang described the loss as the end of a generation, according to attendees at Paris shows.
SCALE: The Valentino house expanded into ready-to-wear, menswear and accessories and remains under new leadership, with ownership 70 percent by Mayhoola and 30 percent by Kering and a Kering buyout option in 2028–2029, records show.
FORWARD: The Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation said his body will lie in repose at the foundation with a public viewing and a funeral at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, and the fashion house will continue to stage collections in Paris under its current leadership.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources frame Valentino’s death as the end of an era through reverent, nostalgic editorial choices. The coverage foregrounds laudatory industry voices (e.g., Groppo, Leitch) and uses elegiac descriptors ('last titan,' 'leviathan,' 'living institution'), while omitting critical commercial perspectives, producing a sentimental continuity-focused narrative.