A 'joyful' designer who worked on 'elevating the beauty of women': Valentino dead at 93

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00:00The Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani has died.

00:04His foundation broke the news this Monday.

00:07Usually known by only his first name, Valentino, was 93.

00:10He'd retired in 2008.

00:12Founder of the eponymous brand Valentino scaled the heights of haute couture,

00:16creating a business empire, introducing a new color to the fashion world,

00:20the so-called Valentino Red, his foundation said.

00:23Valentino Garavani passed away today at his Roman residence,

00:27surrounded by his loved ones. Lying in state will be on Wednesday and Thursday.

00:31The funeral is scheduled to take place in Rome on Friday at 11 a.m.

00:37Let's get more on the life and times of Valentino and bring in Dana Thomas,

00:42author, journalist, but most importantly in this context, fashion expert.

00:46Dana, a pleasure to have you on board. I'm sorry it's in sad circumstances,

00:50but nonetheless, Valentino is someone who I think we should celebrate.

00:54Absolutely. I mean, Mr. Valentino, we always called him Mr. Valentino.

01:00There was Mr. Armani, Mr. Bean, and Mr. Valentino.

01:03And we called, and Mr. Valentino was the life of the party.

01:09He was a joyful and joyous designer.

01:12He made the most beautiful clothes, as you can see on the screens,

01:16that made, he just loved beauty.

01:19He wanted to pursue beauty, create beauty, and loved all things about beauty.

01:27And then he loved a good party, and boy, did he throw good parties.

01:30I was lucky to be at several of them over the years,

01:33including at his homes, at his fashion shows, at dinners afterwards.

01:38He was a very joyful person who made, who just reveled in beauty.

01:43I'm going to take a gamble and ask you, did you ever wear Valentino?

01:46I actually wore Valentino to my rehearsal dinner for my wedding.

01:52My darling husband bought me a beautiful little Valentino dress to wear,

01:56actually, no, to my French wedding,

01:58when we had the second wedding in Paris, or in France.

02:01And we went to Valentino on the Avenue Montaigne

02:05and bought a really adorable dress that now my daughter wears,

02:08and she wore it for her 24th birthday party in London.

02:11How fantastic. How did it feel?

02:13It was so lovely, sexy, beautiful.

02:18And, you know, that's exactly what he was about.

02:21Lovely, sexy, and beautiful.

02:24Mr. Valentino had this way of bringing out a femininity in women

02:28that, you know, very few modern designers do anymore.

02:33They're also obsessed with being modern, being contemporary,

02:40being, you know, fierce.

02:43That's a weird word you hear a lot in fashion.

02:45But Mr. Valentino was one of the old classicists.

02:48He was like, you know, Mr. Salon Hall,

02:50or Mr. Valentino, or Mr. Armani,

02:53Giorgio Armani.

02:55You know, they worked on, you know,

02:58elevating the beauty of women,

02:59and they really did want to make you feel elegant and chic and gorgeous.

03:04And they just loved women.

03:06He loved, loved, loved, loved, loved women.

03:08And you could see by the clients, the top clients that he had,

03:12Elizabeth Taylor, talk about femininity,

03:15and Jacqueline Onassis, when she married Aristotle Onassis,

03:18Jacqueline Kennedy, he dressed her for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis.

03:23And, you know, he just,

03:24he had the kind of women that were very chic,

03:28but were also so feminine.

03:30And that's what his clothes were about.

03:33And that's, you could see he just loved women.

03:35We're seeing in the images as you're talking, Dana,

03:38how the women are exuding class, wearing his designs.

03:42And it's really encapsulating precisely what you're saying.

03:45I wonder, is there a particular signature of Valentino

03:48that people should look for?

03:49Oh, yes, of course.

03:50Go ahead, go ahead.

03:51Valentino Red.

03:52And I almost put on some really red lipstick for him tonight

03:55by Valentino Red, which was his signature.

03:57And, you know, at the end of his show,

03:59he would show all these different things

04:00that would come down the runway

04:01and you'd see Naomi Campbell walking it.

04:04And then at the very last sweep of evening gowns,

04:08there would come out always a beautiful Valentino Red gown.

04:13And Valentino Red was a very specific red.

04:15It's a bit like Christian Louboutin red.

04:16It's a very specific red.

04:18And it was a bit tomato-y versus purple-y.

04:22And, but a very true deep red.

04:25And there was always at least one gown where you went like,

04:28oh, voila, there it is, Mr. Valentino's red gown.

04:31And if you wore, if you went to Valentino and you said,

04:34I need something, it's a bit like, it was a bit like Ferrari.

04:38You know, you should get the red one.

04:41And, you know, there's a joke with Ferrari that says,

04:43you know, if you see someone driving an orange Ferrari,

04:45that means they have the red one in the garage.

04:47And I think that that was the same with Mr. Valentino.

04:49If you were wearing something from Valentino that was other than red,

04:52that meant you had the red one in the closet.

04:55Dana, it's always a pleasure speaking to you.

04:57And thank you for really bringing to life for us the life and times,

05:01the legacy of Valentino.

05:03What a remarkable man.

05:04And clearly you made an impact on yourself.

05:06And thank you for sharing your thoughts, time and insight.

05:09It's been an absolute pleasure.

05:10Dana Thomas, author, journalist, but as we've heard,

05:13expert on fashion and someone who knew Valentino,

05:16went to the parties, wore the dress, did it all.

05:20Dana, thanks for being with us here in France.

05:21We appreciate your time.

05:23On this sad occasion, the passing of the fashion designer,

05:26Valentino, at the age of 93, Dana Thomas with the insight.

05:29Thanks again.

05:30We take...

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