FILE - Fashion designer Valentino Garavani during a photo-call to present the documentary film "Valentino: The Last Emperor" in Rome, Monday, Nov. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
ROME (AP) — Valentino Garavani, the jet-set Italian designer whose high-glamour gowns — often in his trademark shade of “Valentino red” — were fashion show staples for nearly half a century, has died at home in Rome, his foundation announced Monday. He was 93.
“Valentino Garavani was not only a constant guide and inspiration for all of us, but a true source of light, creativity and vision,″ the foundation said in a statement posted on social media.
His body will lie in state at the foundation’s headquarters in Rome on Wednesday and Thursday. The funeral will be held Friday at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica.
FILE - Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, left, waves to the public and holds by the hand American actress Sharon Stone wearing the wedding gown at the end of the presentation of Valentino's 1994 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection presented in Paris October 13, 1993. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)
FILE - Models join the public in clapping hands as they flank Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani at the end of the show of his spring-summer collection in Rome, Italy on Jan. 20, 1971. (AP Photo/Gianni Foggia, File)
FILE - As models and collaborators clap hands, Valentino Garavani salutes cheering guests after he presented his Fall-Winter 1986-1987 High Fashion collection on July 25, 1986 in Rome. (AP Photo/Gianni Foggia, File)
FILE - Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani walks the catwalk with his models after a fashion show on October 20, 1991 in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere, File)
