Stars of fashion and film bid farewell to haute couture ‘emperor’ Valentino
Mourners included Vogue’s Anna Wintour, actresses Anne Hathaway and Elizabeth Hurley and designers Donatella Versace and Tom Ford
Valentino, Italy’s haute couture “emperor”, was laid to rest in Rome on Friday, with the distinctive red he championed in his collections echoed in splashes of crimson among the black-clad mourners.
The biggest names in fashion – including Donatella Versace, Tom Ford and Maria Grazia Chiuri – gathered in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, a church designed by Michelangelo and built on the ruins of ancient Roman baths.
Valentino’s co-founder Giancarlo Giammetti, dressed in a sharply tailored black satin suit, and the designer’s last partner, Bruce Hoeksema, accompanied the plain wooden coffin as it entered the church, drawing applause from the crowds outside.
“Through him, I discovered beauty, a beauty that followed us throughout our lives, that has kept us busy. We met when we were kids, we dreamed the same dreams, we managed to realise some of them, I would even say many of them,” Giammetti said in his eulogy.
In an improvised speech, Hoeksema said: “Valentino, you were the person I spoke to, not the person I spoke about. You were beside me when words were not needed. Life was not always perfect, but it was real. One day at a time, for more than 40 years.”
Mourners included Vogue’s Global Editorial director Anna Wintour, actresses Anne Hathaway and Elizabeth Hurley, American socialite Olivia Palermo and Valentino’s current creative director Alessandro Michele and his predecessor Pierpaolo Piccioli.