Italian designer Valentino greets the audience at the end of his Spring/Summer 2006 Haute Couture show on Jan. 23, 2006 in Paris. (Credit: Francois Guillot/AFP)
Italian fashion designer and haute couture icon Valentino has died at 93, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Monday.
This major figure in high fashion and a symbol of the 1960s dolce vita died at his home in Rome, the agency added, citing the Valentino Garavani Foundation as well as his longtime partner Giancarlo Giammetti.
The funeral will take place Friday at the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome, at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. GMT), according to the foundation.
Valentino made a specialty of dressing — and befriending — all of Hollywood, from Elizabeth Taylor to Ava Gardner, Lana Turner and Audrey Hepburn, as well as Sharon Stone, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow.
His address book included the entire jet set. His meeting with Jackie Kennedy in 1964 was pivotal. He redesigned her wardrobe, and in 1968 she chose an ivory gown adorned with lace from his famous "White Collection" to marry Onassis.
The success was immense in the United States. In 1970, he became the first Italian designer to open a boutique in New York.
From then on, Valentino, considered the spokesman for Italian haute couture, combined Italian craftsmanship, French couture and American ready-to-wear.
