The Mario Valentino Company was founded in 1952 by Mr. Mario Valentino in Naples, Italy, where still today it is present its head office.
This company works in the leather goods with the production of shoes, accessories and women’s wear by using its own Trademarks.
The first shoes with Trademark “Valentino” were created by Mario’s father, Vincenzo Valentino in Naples. He was considered the best manufacturer of the world since the beginning of his activity, in fact even the King Vittorio Emanuele bought his shoes.
At the beginning of the last century he created, in his small factory, very beauftiful shoes on required size, soft, flexible, elegant, very expansive but also very refined.
In the fashion anthologies, Mario Valentino Company is known as the creator of the legendary spike heel, of the most common woman’s maccasin and as the inventor of the precious coral sandal, the same that is now showed at the Bally Shoes Museum in Zurich. Mario invented the famous coral sandal in 1954, while he was helping his father in the factory. This precious item is showed today next to the shoes queen Elizabeth wore on her wedding day. Such an invention was a breakthrough since he managed his first cover on the French Vogue and a contract with I. Miller, the only overseas Company manufacturing luxury shoes.
Indeed the founder of this company has always had the idea of art and fashion as two similar universes. In fact als many artists such as Wahrol, Pomodoro, Rauschenberg and others appreciated this sensitive conception of fashion of Mario Valentino Company.
In 1956 was finally estabilished the still existing factory in Naples. At that time he designed such unusual shoes that as logical consequence he started to design the matching bags. Not many years later, the Company entered the world of clothing: famous designers such as Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, Claude Montana contributed to the avant-garde Mario Valentino Collections in the 7′s and 80′s. The collections were poduced mostly in leather, as disctinctive characteristic of the line.
Several testimonials of the 70′s and 80′s partecipated the success of the definitively estabilished Mario Valentino trademark such as top models as Veruska and Naomi Campbell, photographers as Mapplethorpe, Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton who signed the campaigns showing Mario Valentino philosophy of the design as a true art form.
Among the most famous customer of Mario Valentino Company we can mention: Farah Diba, Jacklin Kennedy Onassis, Consuelo Crespi, Maria Callas, Liz Taylor, Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Spaaak, the Twins Kessler, Monica Vitti, Ornella Vanoni, Ilaria Occhini, Stefania Sandrelli and Marcello Mastroianni.
In the 80′s Mario Valentino Company achieved a strong leadership in Asian markets, imposing events and products in all the most exclusive boutiques of Europe, U.S. and Japan. In the events connected to fashion received many awards by important people such as Ronald and Nancy Regan, Italian President of Republic, U.S. Ambassadors Rabb and Peter Secchia.
Today, the Company is led by Vincenzo Valentino, Mario Valentino’s son, who is following the path traced by his father studying new areas as Russia and East Europe countries.
The headquarters are still in Naples, where the Mario Valentino flagship store is located in the most elegant street of the city. The prestigious Showroom in Milan, very close to Via Montenapoleone, remains the most representative seat of the Company.