Giancarlo Giammetti’s Palatial Renaissance, A Bold New Canvas for Art and Culture

1 July 2025

Giancarlo Giammetti, photographed in his private offices on Via Condotti in March.Photograph by Simon Watson.

With elegance befitting a bygone era, Giancarlo Giammetti the lesser‑known but no less influential half of the duo behind Valentino has unveiled PM23, his restored Renaissance palazzo next to the Spanish Steps in Rome. What was once a sacred printing house for Vatican propaganda has been reborn as the headquarters of Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti (FVG), and it opens with the inaugural exhibition, “Horizons Red,” a lavish homage to Valentino Red and a testament to the pair’s enduring creative legacy.

The story began in 1960 at Rome’s Café de Paris, where an 18‑year‑old architecture student named Giancarlo Giammetti met 28‑year‑old designer Valentino Garavani. That chance encounter would spark a lifelong partnership that fused fashion with business acumen, yielding an empire built on glamour, couture, and cultural diplomacy. Decades later, their impact is undimmed, and PM23 stands as a monument to their shared vision a fusion of heritage and bold modernity.

Upon entering PM23, visitors step into an opulent world of curated artistry. One of the first rooms they encounter is the Painted Salon, where monumental Anselm Kiefer paintings hang in dialogue with the iconic “Fiesta” dress from 1959, its scarlet tulle echoing the emotional depth of the red walls. That room is the spiritual heart of “Horizons Red,” where color becomes theme, motif, and narrative device.

According to Pamela Golbin, the show’s co‑curator, this is the first exhibition of its kind built around a single hue, yet spanning five conceptual horizons: beauty, identity, surface, emotion, and dreams. Each gallery flows into the next, inviting viewers to rekindle their emotional intuition and reconsider the power of color in creative expression. Forty years after its debut, Valentino Red is reborn in a new context, juxtaposed against works by Francis Bacon, Cy Twombly, Louise Bourgeois, and Andy Warhol, among others, highlighting its enduring resonance.

Beyond the exhibition, the palazzo itself feels like a living canvas. Restored by Studio Peregalli Sartori, the space retains baroque frescoes, marble floors, and elaborate woodwork. Its offices on Via Condotti, a second-floor suite once occupied by a Bulgari heiress now house Giammetti’s art‑filled domain, complete with a Zaha Hadid desk, a Calder mobile, and even a 1984 Basquiat painting displayed on a salvaged door.

That entire environment is no accident. As Giammetti notes, beauty was always the driving force behind his and Valentino’s work. “Beauty has always been the value that has inspired us,” he wrote in his mission statement for PM23. Their new foundation is equally dedicated to cultivating creative talent and supporting arts education in Rome, including projects at Bambino Gesù children’s hospital and incubating design workshops. With intentions to host two major exhibitions annually, FVG moves decisively beyond fashion toward a lasting cultural impact.

Celebrities familiar with the Valentino world have greeted the opening warmly. Anne Hathaway, a longtime muse, described the atmosphere as “elegant, intentional, elevated, yet relaxed, cozy, and fun”. Such praise speaks to the collection’s dual purpose, it is both a homecoming and an invitation to enter a universe of refined taste.

In contrast to conventional fashion retrospectives, PM23 is a living collaboration between past and present. Archival gowns from Valentino's storied couture archive are presented alongside contemporary artworks, creating a dynamic conversation about the meaning of color, fashion, and the timeless interplay between form and feeling.

For Giammetti, the project is deeply personal, a homecoming that reflects Roman heritage alongside global sensibility. In renovating the palazzo, he preserved its spiritual architecture while layering in contemporary vision, merging church‑state history with haute couture storytelling. It is both a cultural gift to Rome and a blueprint for how fashion houses can evolve from profit‑driven entities into platforms for art, dialogue, and community outreach.

At 83, he remains the quiet powerhouse behind the narrative. If Valentino is the face, Giammetti is the mind, meticulous, entrepreneurial, and unashamedly devoted to legacy over spectacle. His transformation of PM23 is the culmination of a dream that he and Valentino have nurtured since 1960, a testament to enduring partnerships and the unifying magic of beauty.