Valentino, the Italian fashion designer who built one of the country’s most celebrated luxury houses and was known in the industry as “the emperor”, died on Monday at his home in Rome, his foundation said. He was 93.
The cause of death was not immediately known.
Scaling the heights of high fashion, he was the first Italian to feature on the exclusive Paris haute couture catwalks.
Passionate about film, he dreamed as a young man of dressing the “beautiful ladies of the silverscreen”, as he called them, among them 1950s Hollywood stars Lana Turner and Judy Garland.
Valentino would eventually design Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding gown, and was the first choice for numerous Oscar winners, including Sharon Stone and Penelope Cruz.
The designer, who also dressed Jackie Kennedy, created a business empire under his own name before selling it off ahead of his retirement, in 2008.
