The Couture council of The Museum at the FIT honored Valentino with their yearly Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion on Wednesday September 7, 2011 at a benefit luncheon at Lincoln Center, New York City.

Valentino was chosen to receive The Couture Council Fashion Visionary Award by the Couture Council Advisory Committee, an independent group consisting of curators, editors, and retailers.

In 1950, while still an adolescent, Valentino Garavani went to Paris to study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, having already discovered (at a premiere of the Barcelona Opera) the perfect red that would become a leitmotif throughout his career. In 1968, a year of radical revolt, Valentino presented his immaculate Collezione Bianca of white and off-white dresses whose simple elegance proved that couture was not irrelevant.

Luncheon chairs for the Valentino Award are Anne H. Bass, Charlotte Moss, Diane von Furstenberg and The Honorable Daphne Guinness, who is a true couture collector and style icon. Her personal collection will be the subject of an exhibition opening at The Museum at FIT in September 2011. A number of Valentino’s masterpieces will be featured in this exhibition.

Past recipients of The Couture Council Awards are Karl Lagerfeld in 2010, Dries Van Noten in 2009, Isabel Toledo in 2008, Alber Elbaz in 2007, and Ralph Rucci in 2006.  In 2008, Giorgio Armani also received a special award for Global Fashion Leadership.

Valentino is definitely one of the renowned designers and couturiers in the history and world of fashion.