A steady stream of global celebrities and designers paid tribute to Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, who died on Monday aged 93.
Known universally by his first name, Valentino transformed high fashion after co-founding his eponymous luxury brand in 1960 alongside Giancarlo Giammetti. The designer's connection to the Middle East was both long-standing and deep.
Valentino was early to the Middle East
Fashion entrepreneur Ingie Chalhoub was one of the first to bring the Italian brand to the region, through her company Etoile Group, introducing Valentino to the UAE in the 1990s.
With its profound sense of elegance, the house was a natural fit for the Middle East and its love of occasion dressing. Able to create showstopping gowns in head-turning colours – including in its famous Valentino Red – the label quickly became a go-to for leading regional women, including those from royal families, looking for gowns that were romantic yet elegant.
Arab royalty who love Valentino
High-profile women such as Qatar's Sheikha Jawaher and Queen Rania of Jordan have regularly turned to Valentino. Queen Rania was spotted in a blue Valentino dress at the 20th opening of parliament last October.
Qatar's Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, mother of Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim, one of the Middle East’s most influential fashion figures, is also a noted collector and wearer of Valentino couture. She has worn Valentino at key moments, such as a bespoke blue-green embroidered ensemble at the Fashion Trust Arabia Awards in Doha in 2025, as well as several looks – notably a striking lime-green gown and a two-toned evening coat – worn during the June 2023 wedding celebrations of Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah and Rajwa Al Saif.
Qatari investment in Valentino
In July 2012, the Qatari royal family acquired Valentino through its investment vehicle Mayhoola, buying the brand from private equity firm Permira for a reported $819 million. Valentino joined a portfolio that includes Balmain, Pal Zileri and Turkish luxury retailer Beymen.
In late 2023, Mayhoola sold a 30 per cent stake in Valentino to fashion conglomerate Kering for nearly $2 billion, valuing the brand at $6.5 billion. Kering has the option to buy the remaining 70 per cent by 2028, though the full acquisition price isn't set and depends on performance.
Forever Valentino exhibition in Qatar
In October 2022, the largest-ever exhibition celebrating the work and legacy of Valentino Garavani opened in Doha. Timed to coincide with the designer’s 90th birthday, Forever Valentino was staged at Msheireb Downtown Doha’s design hub, M7, and marked the house’s first exhibition in the Middle East. The show traced Valentino's six-decade career, while also acknowledging the creative visions of his successors, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli.
Bringing together almost 200 haute couture and ready-to-wear gowns, the exhibition showcased Valentino’s singular vision of beauty – expressed through bold colour, including the signature house red, feminine flourishes and an inexhaustible imagination.
The exhibition – the largest devoted to the Valentino's work – attracted tens of thousands of visitors during its run from October 28, 2022, to April 1, 2023. Piccioli, then the house's creative director, attended the opening, as well as appearing at Fashion Trust Arabia in Doha, held a few days earlier.
Having taken over the house in 2008 following the designer's retirement, Piccioli led the brand until March 2024.
He paid tribute to his predecessor this week with a moving message: “You were my mentor without ever needing a lectern; you had no need of one. You taught me that fashion is joy, though a profoundly serious kind of joy.
“I will say goodbye to you in this way, with composed gratitude and a trace of imperfection. For this, too, is what you taught me: that absolute precision without humanity leaves no trace, while a mistake shaped with intelligence can become style. You created an eternity, a place made of dream and beauty.”
