Valentino

Valentino sat out the Autumn/Winter 2026 Paris womenswear schedule and presented in Rome instead. The calendar absence records the house’s temporary relocation without duplicating the Interferenze collection entry.

Valentino appeared on the Spring/Summer 2026 Paris Haute Couture Week calendar as a Corresponding Member. The listing recorded the house’s institutional couture status during Michele’s current tenure.

Valentino Garavani died in Rome on 19 January 2026 aged 93. His death closed the living founder chapter while the commercial house and the independent foundation continued under separate structures.

Valentino and Kering Eyewear announced a new global manufacturing and distribution licence on 15 September 2025, ending the Akoni agreement early. The transfer took effect on 1 January 2026 and placed eyewear inside Kering’s specialist operating network.

Kering and Mayhoola amended their shareholder agreement in September 2025. The change deferred the put and call options governing a possible full acquisition to 2028 and 2029 while preserving the 70/30 ownership split.

Riccardo Bellini became Valentino’s chief executive on 1 September 2025 after serving as managing director of Mayhoola. His mandate places the house’s turnaround and Kering–Mayhoola integration alongside Alessandro Michele’s current creative programme.

Jacopo Venturini stepped down as Valentino’s chief executive on 13 August 2025 by mutual agreement. The house cited personal reasons; the record does not attribute the departure to the company’s financial pressure or the Valentino Bags Lab court administration.

The Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti opened PM23 in Piazza Mignanelli with the Orizzonti | Rosso exhibition. The independent cultural space placed the founders’ archive in dialogue with modern and contemporary art.

Valentino cancelled its June 2024 menswear and haute couture presentations after Piccioli’s departure. The pause gave Michele and the Rome ateliers time to establish a new programme before the first deliveries and runway show.

Valentino announced Alessandro Michele as creative director on 28 March 2024, with responsibility for womenswear, menswear, haute couture and accessories effective 2 April. His appointment introduced a rapid archival and visual reset after Piccioli’s departure.

Pierpaolo Piccioli and Valentino announced the end of their collaboration on 22 March 2024. The departure closed a continuous twenty-five-year relationship spanning accessories, joint creative direction and his solo tenure.

Kering agreed to acquire a 30 per cent stake in Valentino from Mayhoola for €1.7 billion. Mayhoola retained 70 per cent ownership, while the transaction created a path towards a possible later acquisition.

Valentino transferred its global eyewear licence from Luxottica to Akoni Group in July 2022 under a ten-year agreement. The partnership was terminated early when the category moved into Kering Eyewear’s operating system.

Valentino announced in 2021 that RED Valentino would be discontinued, with the final deliveries completed around 2023 and 2024. The closure consolidated the company around one elevated main brand.

L’Oréal Luxe introduced the Valentino Beauty cosmetics line internationally in 2021 under the licence announced three years earlier. The launch expanded the house from fragrance into a full prestige make-up system linked to its fashion image.

Jacopo Venturini returned to Valentino as chief executive in June 2020, succeeding Stefano Sassi. His brand-elevation mandate consolidated the product architecture, including the planned end of RED Valentino and a stronger concentration on the couture-adjacent mainline.

Valentino announced a long-term worldwide fragrance and beauty licence with L’Oréal in May 2018, effective January 2019. The agreement later supported the international launch of Valentino Beauty in 2021.

Pierpaolo Piccioli assumed sole creative direction across all Valentino divisions in July 2016. His mandate shifted the house towards couture-led humanism, expansive colour and volume, diverse casting and public recognition of atelier labour.

Maria Grazia Chiuri left Valentino in July 2016 after seventeen years at the house and eight years as co-creative director. Her departure for Dior ended the long partnership with Pierpaolo Piccioli.

Valentino established La Bottega dell’Arte at Palazzo Mignanelli in 2015 to train new couture artisans. The academy formalised the transfer of specialist techniques from former premières and became an operational safeguard for the Rome ateliers.

Mayhoola for Investments acquired Valentino in 2012 for approximately €700 million. The transaction separated the house from the wider Valentino Fashion Group portfolio and supplied patient capital for retail and product expansion.

Valentino brought RED Valentino production in-house in 2009, ending the diffusion line’s initial manufacturing licence with Sinv. The move converted RED from a licensed operation into an internally managed division before the later single-brand consolidation.

Aldo Maria Camillo served as menswear design director from 2009 to 2012 under Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli’s overall creative leadership. His studio role helped codify Valentino menswear before its Pitti Uomo presentation, but the evidence does not support independent authorship of the collections.

Pierpaolo Piccioli was promoted from accessories to co-creative director of the full house with Maria Grazia Chiuri. Their shared authorship rebuilt menswear, developed Rockstud and re-centred the house on a distinctly Roman historical vocabulary.

Maria Grazia Chiuri was promoted from accessories to co-creative director of the full house with Pierpaolo Piccioli. The joint era connected Roman historicism and couture to a commercially decisive accessories system.

Valentino dismissed Alessandra Facchinetti immediately after her Spring/Summer 2009 presentation, citing a misaligned vision. Contemporary reviews had often been positive, and the abrupt exit reflected a wider succession and corporate crisis rather than a simple aesthetic failure.

Valentino Garavani completed his retirement from the house in January 2008 after announcing it the previous September. His final couture presentation closed a staggered handover that overlapped with Alessandra Facchinetti’s appointment.

Valentino appointed Ferruccio Pozzoni to lead menswear in December 2007 while Alessandra Facchinetti directed womenswear and Chiuri and Piccioli retained accessories. His departure in 2009 allowed menswear to be consolidated under the joint creative directors, although the exact exit month remains unresolved.

Alessandra Facchinetti was appointed creative director for womenswear, including haute couture, ready-to-wear, RED and Roma. Menswear and accessories remained under separate leadership, making her remit narrower than the founder’s.

The Ara Pacis in Rome staged Valentino a Roma: 45 Years of Style, a retrospective of roughly 300 garments curated by Patrick Kinmonth and Antonio Monfreda. The exhibition formed the institutional capstone to Garavani’s final year at the house.

Permira acquired control of Valentino Fashion Group in a leveraged transaction valued at approximately €2.6 billion. The debt-heavy structure intensified the pressure surrounding the founder succession and the 2008 financial crisis.

Stefano Sassi became Valentino’s chief executive in December 2006, replacing Michele Norsa, and remained through the transition to Jacopo Venturini in 2020. His tenure covered the Permira buyout and debt restructuring, the post-founder succession, Mayhoola’s acquisition and the house’s subsequent commercial expansion.

Marzotto spun its fashion assets into the publicly listed Valentino Fashion Group in 2005. The holding company included Valentino alongside businesses such as Hugo Boss and was not a single-brand operating entity.

Valentino launched RED Valentino in 2003 as a younger diffusion line under the influence of Chiuri and Piccioli. Production was initially licensed to Sinv before being brought in-house in 2009.

Marzotto Apparel acquired Valentino from HdP in 2002 and restructured the company within a wider textile and fashion portfolio. The founders continued to direct the house’s creative output.

Valentino recruited Pierpaolo Piccioli from Fendi in 1999 to rebuild the accessories division with Maria Grazia Chiuri. His continuous relationship with the house progressed through joint and sole creative leadership before ending in 2024.

Valentino recruited Maria Grazia Chiuri from Fendi in 1999 to rebuild the accessories division with Pierpaolo Piccioli. Her continuous tenure later expanded into joint creative direction of the full house.

Holding di Partecipazioni Industriali acquired Valentino for approximately $300 million in 1998. Garavani and Giammetti retained their creative and strategic roles, so the sale changed ownership without ending the founder era.

Valentino Garavani and architect Tommaso Ziffer established Accademia Valentino in Rome. The project provided an institutional setting for exhibitions and cultural activity alongside the fashion house.

Valentino and Mario Valentino entered a trademark coexistence agreement governing leather goods. The agreement requires the Roman house to use the Valentino Garavani name on external handbag and accessories branding.

Valentino launched its first signature fragrance in 1978 with a gala at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The release established fragrance as a recurring licensed division rather than a temporary extension of the fashion collections.

Garavani and Giammetti recovered the house’s assets from Kenton Corporation through a buyback completed around 1973 or 1974. The exact legal date remains unresolved, but the move restored independent control before the GFT licensing expansion.

Kenton Corporation acquired Valentino’s worldwide assets, goodwill and trademarks to finance expansion into ready-to-wear. The transaction interrupts the common account of uninterrupted founder ownership.

Valentino established its permanent creative headquarters at Palazzo Mignanelli in Rome in 1967. The building became the centre of the couture ateliers and remains the house’s technical and symbolic home.

Valentino Garavani received the Neiman Marcus Fashion Award in 1967. The recognition confirmed the Rome atelier’s standing with a major American retailer after the 1962 Florence breakthrough and before the White Collection consolidated its international position.

Valentino Garavani established his Rome atelier in 1959 and directed the house’s couture, ready-to-wear and image until January 2008. His tenure established Rosso Valentino, the V logo and the atelier vocabulary that later successors inherited. Giancarlo Giammetti joined Valentino Garavani in 1960 and took control of the atelier’s financial, licensing and international strategy. Their division between creative and commercial authority sustained the house for nearly five decades.