Why That Second Word on Your Valentino Bag Is Garavani
Flip the tag of a Valentino bag into view and it carries two words where you may have expected one: VALENTINO and GARAVANI, in capitals, above MADE IN ITALY. That second word is usually read as a flourish, a founder’s signature added for prestige, or a sign of some particular sub-line. It is none of those things. A contract signed in 1979 requires GARAVANI to be there, which is also why the word appears throughout the advertising for the house’s leather goods. Grasp the reason and the trivia becomes the single most useful check available to a buyer. This piece covers where the word comes from, what it guarantees, and what it does not.
The short answer
Another company holds overlapping rights to the word Valentino on handbags in the United States, and the Roman couture house agreed decades ago to add its founder’s surname in order to stay distinguishable. Mario Valentino S.p.A. is that other company, founded in Naples in 1952, a leather goods and footwear business with no connection to the couture house founded in Rome in 1960. By its own account, Mario Valentino has held the American trademark Valentino for handbags and leather goods since 26 April 1971, and that senior-rights position is corroborated in legal reporting. A coexistence agreement in 1979 divided the marks between the two businesses, and one of its terms obliges Valentino S.p.A. to use GARAVANI alongside VALENTINO on leather goods and in the advertising for them. What sits on your bag, then, is a legal obligation carried out in stamped capitals. All the rest is detail attached to that one fact.
The man whose surname it is
The house was founded in Rome in 1960 by Valentino Garavani together with Giancarlo Giammetti, valentino garavani bag with the first atelier opening on Via Condotti. He designed under his own name for close to five decades, retiring from design in 2007 and showing his final couture collection in January 2008. He had already sold the company in 1998, so by the time he stepped back he no longer owned the business carrying his name. He died on 19 January 2026, aged 93. None of the bags in the current collection were designed by him, and nor was anything made in the past two decades. What the surname on the tag records is who started the house; who works there now it does not address.
The 1979 agreement and the case that put it to the test
The two companies settled their overlap privately rather than in court, and the coexistence agreement they signed in 1979 remains the governing document. It works in both directions, giving each business a defined set of permissions and a defined set of limits. Decades later the arrangement was tested in an American court: Valentino S.p.A. filed suit against Mario Valentino in July 2019 in the Central District of California, docketed 2:19-cv-6306, alleging false advertising, unfair competition and breach of the coexistence agreement. Mario Valentino’s counterclaims were dismissed in April 2021, and the case was settled and dismissed without prejudice on 14 June 2024, with terms that were never disclosed. Because it ended without prejudice either side may bring the matter back, and reporting indicates further proceedings, including arbitrations, remained live in Italy. Neither company had wrongdoing established against it, and none is suggested here; this is a trademark boundary between two legitimate businesses.
What the Naples company is allowed to do
The agreement permits Mario Valentino to trade under several forms of the name. The exterior of its products may carry Mario Valentino, M. Valentino, Valentino, MV or V. The condition attached is that the full name Mario Valentino must appear inside the item and on its packaging, so the maker stays identifiable to anyone who opens the bag. What it may not do is combine V and Valentino together on leather goods. The products are genuine goods from a genuine Italian house, sitting at a different price point and moving through different channels than the couture house uses. Claims the company makes about inventing the stiletto heel and the women’s moccasin are self-description rather than independently verified history, and are best read that way.
What the Roman house is obliged to do
The reverse obligation is narrower and a great deal more visible. On leather goods, and in advertising for leather goods, Valentino S.p.A. presents the mark as VALENTINO GARAVANI instead of VALENTINO alone. Hence the name of the accessories line, hence both words on the interior tag, and hence the longer form used consistently on the house’s own product pages for bags. The requirement does not reach every category identically, which is why ready-to-wear can be presented as Valentino or Maison Valentino. For a buyer the effect is simple: the longer name on a bag is the expected, compliant form, and its absence on something sold as couture-house merchandise deserves a second look. Boring, contractual and enormously useful is what the rule is.
One house, two names
A common misreading is that Valentino Garavani is a sub-brand, a diffusion line or a lower tier within the same company. It is not. The naming convention Valentino Garavani covers accessories while Valentino and Maison Valentino cover ready-to-wear, and every bit of it comes from one company applying one set of standards. The same house makes a Rockstud crossbody bag and a couture gown alike; what differs is only the wording on the label, for the contractual reason set out above. Pierpaolo Piccioli has handed creative direction to Alessandro Michele, who has led the house since 2024 on the most recent confirmable reporting. Ownership sits with Mayhoola for Investments at seventy per cent and Kering at thirty per cent, the latter acquired in July 2023 with a stated intention to take full ownership by 2028. Accessories carrying the longer name were observed in 2026 at market prices running from about $650 for a VLogo Signature clutch to $7,900 for an embroidered Panthea, all made in Italy, while Rebag’s data puts average resale retention for the house near 41 per cent, with hero styles between 50 and 58 per cent.
What GARAVANI guarantees, and what it does not
GARAVANI on a tag tells you which company made the bag. It does not by itself prove the bag is authentic, because counterfeiters copy tags as readily as they copy studs. Physical checks are the ones that matter: capitals in a consistent font weight, evenly pressed stamping without smudging, a tag sewn down on all four sides, engraved rather than printed hardware logos, square zip pulls with rounded edges and deep engraving, uniform pyramid studs at even spacing, and stitching of consistent density. On most bags a serial number sits on a tag inside an interior pocket, often black, cream or light brown, but not on all of them, older pieces frequently lack one, and a missing serial proves nothing by itself. These bags carry no date-code system whatsoever, which means any guide claiming to decode a production date from the digits is inventing it. Authenticity cards are reported to list the model specification, the serial and Made in Italy, the serial matching the interior tag; that account comes from resale and authentication practice rather than an official brand statement, and pre-owned bags frequently arrive without one.
| What you are looking at | What it really means |
|---|---|
| Both VALENTINO and GARAVANI on the interior tag | Made by the Roman couture house, which its 1979 obligation requires |
| Valentino on the exterior, Mario Valentino inside or on the packaging | Genuine, and from the separate Naples company |
| No serial number on the interior tag | Seen on older pieces, and not proof of a fake on its own |
| A supposed date code on the bag | There is no such system for these bags |
| A pre-owned bag with no authenticity card | Ordinary, because cards are often lost or never passed on |
Reading a listing before you buy
Most mistakes happen in the description rather than in the bag. A resale listing headed simply Valentino bag says nothing about which company made it, and sellers abbreviate constantly, sometimes without realising there is anything to abbreviate. Before agreeing a price, ask for a clear photograph of the interior tag, and believe what the tag says rather than what the title says. If you are shopping new, buy from the house’s own boutiques and webstore or from named authorised retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Mytheresa, Farfetch, Selfridges or Harrods, where the question never arises. If you are browsing a Valentino bag sale at an American off-price chain, expect Valentino by Mario Valentino, because that is what those chains’ own brand filters list. One word on a tag settles all of it, which is precisely why it is worth knowing how the word got there.
