From Jackie Kennedy for her wedding with Onassis to Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett or Sophia Loren collecting her Oscars, Valentino designs have seduced many celebrities over the years, with Anne Hathaway and Gwyneth Paltrow as their great international admirers, without forgetting Queen Sofia in Spain.
Hathaway has been a true supporter of Valentino in Hollywood among younger actresses. One of her last public appearances was at the WWD Honors 2025, where the ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ actress looked beautiful in a vintage red dress that belonged to the Fall-Winter 2003 collection.
No less spectacular than the fuchsia pink sequin miniskirt and jacket with bubblegum pink platform heels at the Valentino June 2022 haute couture show.
Another actress who has worn the Italian’s designs a lot has been Gwyneth Paltrow, who did not hesitate at the 2019 Emmy gala to wear a beautiful vintage Valentino made in 1963, in silver and black, with transparencies at the neck and floor-length chiffon sleeves.
Read: Who was Valentino Garavani, the great Italian fashion designer, who died at 93?
But much earlier, in 1968, it was Jacqueline Kennedy who discovered Valentino to international celebrities by commissioning the dress she wore at her second wedding, to Aristotle Onassis.
A delicate short dress, with a high neck, with embroidered straps on the body and a pleated skirt. He made Jackie a fashion icon and the design was so successful that Valentino received no less than sixty commissions to make the same model, which became one of the historical emblems of its brand.
She was not the only bride to wear Valentino: Claudia Schiffer chose it for her wedding to Matthew Vaughn in 2002; Jennifer López for her second marriage, in 2001, to Chris Judd; Queen Máxima of Holland, in 2002, or Princess Madeleine of Sweden, in 2011.
Four elegant, romantic designs, full of lace and with the obvious seal of Valentino style.
The Oscars, a showcase for their designs
But if there has been a definitive escape from Valentino’s work, it has been the Oscars.
Jessica Lange was the first to collect an Oscar dressed in Valentino, with a water green design, studded with sequins, to receive her second statuette in 1983, for best supporting actress, for ‘Tootsie’.
In 1991, the great Sophia Loren opted for a black, lace-filled Valentino to receive her honorary Oscar.
But it is undoubtedly the black dress with white trim that Julia Roberts wore at the 2001 Oscar ceremony, the edition in which she won her Oscar for best actress for ‘Erin Brockovich’, the most remembered. An example of the delicacy of her work, with a black tulle train that opened revealing more white stripes.
Cate Blanchett also wore a Valentino in 2005, the year in which she received her Oscar for best supporting actress for ‘The Aviator’. A very elegant pale yellow suit with a burgundy belt.
And even without a statuette, actresses like Jennifer López dazzled on the red carpet, with an aqua green tunic at the 2003 ceremony, or Anne Hathaway with a red Valentino design in 2011, which she wore on the designer’s arm.
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Queen Sofia and her relationship with Valentino
But not only stars chose Valentino for big occasions. Queen Sofia of Spain maintained a long friendship with the designer.
Valentino trained in the workshops of Jean Dessès, the Paris-based couturier, who made the wedding dress for the daughter of the kings of Greece.
After that first contact, King Philip’s mother wore an elegant halter-neck dress in 1973 adorned with a large flower at the neck. Five years later at Gymnich Castle at a dinner with the president of Germany Walter Scheel a haute couture design by the Italian.
A closet that has opened the doors to Queen Letizia who recovered that same design by the Italian creator four years ago, during a reception for the diplomatic corps, a dress that her mother-in-law wore almost fifty years ago during a visit to Germany.
A light body piece with a rounded neck, semi-transparent puffed sleeves and tight cuffs made of gray chiffon decorated with floral embroidery in pink and green tones and a green skirt with a high waist and lots of volume.
Between the 70s and the 90s, Queen Sofia was a style icon, especially on big occasions. She trusted Valentino again at the celebration of the silver wedding of Queen Margaret of Denmark and Prince Henrik, where she wore a bando dress with gold thread embroidery.
Photographer Reginald Davis took an image of her in an oriental-inspired blue Valentino alongside King Juan Carlos dressed in gala uniform.
An admiration and closeness that could be seen when in 2017 the queen emeritus attended the premiere of ‘La Traviata’ in Valencia, a production with stage direction by Sofia Coppola and costumes designed by Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti.
With information from EFE
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