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Valentino Garavani, the couturier who ruled glamour, bows out at 93
ROME: Rome did not wake up quietly on Monday. Valentino Garavani, the man who made elegance a discipline and glamour a calling, has died at 93, drawing the final line under haute couture’s most gilded chapter. In an industry addicted to reinvention, Valentino never chased change. He commanded it, in silk, satin and an unmistakable shade of red.
Born in Voghera in 1932, Valentino trained in Paris under Jean Dessès and Guy Laroche before returning to Italy to launch his fashion house in Rome in 1960. It was a deliberate homecoming. Paris taught him technique, but Rome gave him mythology. What followed was not merely a label but a worldview, rooted in discipline, drama and unapologetic beauty.
The house took flight after Valentino met Giancarlo Giammetti, then an architecture student. Their partnership became one of fashion’s most durable alliances. Valentino shaped the dream. Giammetti built the machine. Together, they turned an atelier on Via Condotti into a global luxury empire synonymous with Italian refinement and jet-set excess.
Valentino’s visual language was defiantly romantic. While fashion flirted with grunge, minimalism and irony, he doubled down on craftsmanship, bows, embroidery and gowns engineered to command rooms. At the centre of it all was Rosso Valentino, a vivid, operatic red that became his signature and a permanent fixture on runways and red carpets.
Yet restraint was also part of his arsenal. His 1968 White Collection, entirely devoid of colour, announced his mastery just as loudly. It also caught the attention of Jacqueline Kennedy, who commissioned Valentino to dress her for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis. The moment sealed his place as couturier to power and poise.
Valentino dressed not trends but women who shaped eras. Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Marella Agnelli and Princess Margaret wore his creations as armour. Later generations followed. Julia Roberts’ black-and-white Valentino gown at the 2001 Oscars became a red-carpet benchmark. Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and Zendaya turned to the house when impact mattered.
The business grew alongside the myth. Valentino SpA expanded into ready-to-wear, accessories, footwear and fragrances, becoming a global luxury name. The company was sold in 1998 and later passed to Mayhoola for Investments, but Valentino remained creatively dominant until his retirement.
His final couture show in Paris in 2008 was staged as theatre. Models emerged one after another in identical red gowns before Valentino took his last bow. It was not nostalgia. It was control.
The fashion world paid tribute. Gucci said on X: “We at Gucci are deeply sorry to hear of the passing of Valentino Garavani, a pioneering couturier and an icon of Italian fashion.” Donatella Versace called him “a true maestro who will forever be remembered for his art.” Cindy Crawford described him as a “master of his craft,” Gwyneth Paltrow said his passing felt like “the end of an era,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed him as “an undisputed master of style and elegance and eternal symbol of Italian haute couture,” and Maison Valentino posted: “His unique style and innate elegance will remain forever… His life was a beacon in the ceaseless pursuit of beauty, and guided by that same beauty, we will continue to honor his memory with our deepest devotion.” Ralph Lauren added: “We all knew him by his first name—Valentino, a romantic name he lived up to through the artfulness of the collections he designed and the passion for beauty that inspired him for so many decades… His memory will live on through the timeless beauty of the world he created.”
In an industry now driven by speed and spectacle, Valentino’s legacy feels almost subversive. He believed elegance could be permanent, beauty could be exacting and fashion could still aspire to grandeur.
The emperor has left the building. The red remains.
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YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
