Rome, Italy
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Peers, supporters, successors and admirers of the late Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani are paying their respects at this time in Rome at the late couturier’s funeral.
Since Wednesday, Valentino (who usually glided by his first title) has been mendacity in state at PM23, the new arts and tradition exhibition area opened by Fondazione Valentino Garavani in 2025. There, amongst white-washed partitions and below an opulent chandelier of white flowers, Valentino’s coffin lay. Today, it has been transported to the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri — a church designed by Michelangelo in the sixteenth century — for the ceremony in central Rome.
While open to the public, the funeral visitor checklist additionally consists of business luminaries, in addition to excessive profile girls — similar to Anne Hathaway and Olivia Palermo — who repeatedly wore Valentino’s designs on the purple carpet. Alessandro Michelle, the present inventive director at Valentino, arrived in darkish blacked-out shades. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who led Valentino’s namesake model from 2008 till 2024, made his approach into the church alongside Francois-Henri Pinault — the present chairman of the board of administrators at Kering, the father or mother firm of Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and extra.
Also noticed was Fendi designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, the former inventive director at Dior who additionally served a stint at Valentino. American designer Tom Ford, longtime British fashion journalist Suzy Menkes and Anna Wintour had been additionally in attendance — the latter arriving in a fur stole and her signature layers of candy-colored jewel necklaces. Even the Carabinieri police capes worn by the guards had been designed by Armani.
Early in the morning, a gradual stream of white flower wreaths had been carried inside the basilica. Members of the public queued outdoors the church, some had been wearing purple or carrying purple baggage, purses, scarves — a homage to the designer’s signature scarlet shade. One fan outdoors the church waved a glittering black poster to the digicam: “Goodbye Valentino,” it learn. “The last emperor of fashion.”
