Valentino Garavani

I think it’s really impossible, and completely reductive, to sum up the life of someone like Valentino Garavani in an article. In 1960, he founded and then ran, alongside his partner Giancarlo Giammetti, one of the most legendary fashion houses to ever exist for almost half a century (selling Valentino in 1998 and staying on as creative director for another full decade). He created an empire, owned a color, and dressed the most influential, important, and interesting people on the planet. Much like a Miuccia Prada, Gianni Versace, or Giorgio Armani, Valentino was in his own league. With all that being said, I thought it would be best to let his work speak for him. So, here are a few of what I consider the most memorable and beautiful, moments from the legendary career of Valentino Garavani:

This was one of the first photographs of Jackie wearing Valentino. She was attending a dinner at the Chamcar Mon Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1967. Jackie Kennedy frequently wore Valentino’s designs, most notably, she wore a couture wedding dress from Valentino’s spring 1968 collection for her second wedding to Aristotle Onassis that same year (below).

Another pop culture and high society legend with ties to the house was the beloved Princess Diana. This was prior to her famous falling out with the designer in 1994, when Valentino leaked a press release that she would be wearing one of his designs to a Vanity Fair dinner.

This had irritated Diana and so she decided to instead wear the now iconic Christina Stambolian "revenge dress" that night.

And now I’d like to present a slew of Hollywood royalty in Valentino’s designs throughout the years. Much the same as when someone asks if you have a favorite child...I do, and it’s Jennifer Aniston's 2004 Golden Globes dress.

Halle Berry’s Oscars dress from 1996.

When Jennifer Garner wore a 1970s gown to the 2004 Vanity Fair Oscar party.

And lastly, Gwyneth Paltrow, pictured alongside the man himself, wearing Valentino to the opening night of the 2002 Venice Film Festival.