Valentino obituary

"The one at Somerset House in London in 2012, Valentino: Master of Couture, displayed more than a hundred of his outfits within close peering range, each with a card bearing the name of the woman royal, diva, star, social leader for whom it had been created. In another room were samplers of the superlative techniques of Valentino's ragazze, the girls'' in white coats in his couture ateliers who had sewn those gowns."

"Valentino, who has died aged 93, was a specialist in a high level of luxury without undue grandeur, dressing the world's most photographed women from the Dolce Vita period of Italian cinema in the 1960s to J-Lo at the Oscars in the 2000s. He never led, or wanted to lead, fashion in cut, line or mood, and, although he was proud to be the first Italian couturier fully, if reluctantly, accepted by Paris as one of their own by training and aspiration,"

"Glamour was his metier he had been enchanted into the business as a boy by the glittering, shimmering, robes of the showgirls processing down endless stairs in the 1941 Hollywood musical Ziegfeld Girl. Long before red carpets at film premieres and the steps of the New York Metropolitan Museum on gala night became major fashion venues, Valentino designed gowns that would have been show-stoppers on them."

Valentino Garavani retired in 2008 after a half-century of couture creation and his work featured in major exhibitions. Exhibitions presented more than a hundred outfits with cards naming the women for whom each piece was created and displayed samplers of the superlative techniques used by his ateliers' ragazze. The definitive Valentino dress was patchworked of handmade lace so light it could be posted in an A3 envelope. He specialized in high-level luxury without undue grandeur, dressed the world's most photographed women from the Dolce Vita era to J-Lo, and prioritized the needs of the wearer while maintaining Italian dressmaking traditions.

Read at www.theguardian.com