The Valentino fashion house was founded in 1960 by Valentino Garavani in Rome, Italy, with the support of his father and his partner Giancarlo Giammetti. Valentino made its international debut in 1962 in Florence, the fashion capital of the time. Valentino has designed wedding dresses for Elizabeth Taylor, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, Sophie Hunter and Princess Madeleine of Sweden. In 1998, Garavani and Giammetti sold the company for about $300 million to an Italian conglomerate controlled in part by the late Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat. In 2002, the fashion house Valentino S. p.A. with revenues of more than $180 million, was sold to Milan textile giant Marzotto Apparel for $210 million. In 2012, Qatar acquired Valentino for €700 million through the investment vehicle Mayhoola for Investments S.P.C. In 2020, the fashion house announced it would no longer use alpaca wool and cut ties with Mallkini, the world's largest private alpaca farm in Peru. The move follows revelations of animal cruelty in the industry.
