Which designer founded the luxury fashion house Valentino in 1960?

Valentino Garavani founded the luxury fashion house Valentino in 1960. He opened his own fashion house on Rome’s Via Condotti after training and working with established Parisian and Italian designers.

Garavani soon formed a crucial personal and business partnership with Giancarlo Giammetti, who helped stabilize and manage the young company while Garavani focused on design. Valentino’s international breakthrough came with a 1962 presentation in Florence, which attracted major critical and media attention.

The house became famous for elegant eveningwear and its vivid signature shade, commonly called “Valentino red.” Garavani dressed clients including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and other prominent figures. The designer stepped down as the label’s creative director in 2007, but his name remains inseparable from the maison. The common mistake is to answer with another famous Italian designer, such as Gianni Versace or Giorgio Armani; neither founded Valentino.