Why That Second Word on Your Valentino Bag Is Garavani
Turn a Valentino bag inside out and the tag shows two words where you might have expected one: VALENTINO and GARAVANI, in capitals, above MADE IN ITALY. Most shoppers read that second word as a flourish, a founder’s signature added for prestige, or a sign that they have bought some particular sub-line. It is not any 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. Once you understand the reason, a piece of trivia becomes the single most useful check a buyer can make. This piece covers where the word comes from, what it guarantees, and what it does not.
The one-sentence version
Because another company holds overlapping rights to the word Valentino on handbags in the United States, the Roman couture house agreed decades ago to add its founder’s surname and stay distinguishable. That other company is Mario Valentino S.p.A., 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 split 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. The word on your bag is therefore a legal obligation carried out in stamped capitals. All the rest is detail attached to that one fact.
The man whose surname it is
Valentino Garavani founded the house in Rome in 1960 with Giancarlo Giammetti, opening the first atelier on Via Condotti. He designed under his own name for close to five decades, retiring from design in 2007 and showing his valentino crossbody final couture collection in January 2008. He had already sold the company in 1998, meaning that by the time he stepped back he no longer owned the business carrying his name. He died on 19 January 2026, aged 93. Not one bag in the current collection was designed by him, and neither was anything made in the past two decades. The surname on the tag records who started the house; it says nothing about who works there now.
The 1979 agreement, and the case that tested it
The two companies settled their overlap privately rather than in court, and the coexistence agreement they signed in 1979 remains the governing document. The agreement works both ways, handing each business a defined set of permissions and a defined set of limits. The arrangement was tested decades later in an American court, when 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. April 2021 brought the dismissal of Mario Valentino’s counterclaims, and the case was settled and dismissed without prejudice on 14 June 2024, with terms that were never disclosed. Ending without prejudice means either side may bring the matter back, and reporting indicates further proceedings, arbitrations among them, 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
Under the agreement, Mario Valentino may trade under several forms of the name. On the exterior of its products it may use 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. The company may not combine V and Valentino together on leather goods. These are genuine goods from a genuine Italian house, sold at a different price point and 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 rather than VALENTINO alone. That is why the accessories line is named the way it is, why the interior tag carries both words, and why the house’s own product pages for bags use the longer form consistently. Not every category is reached identically by the requirement, 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. The rule is boring, contractual and enormously useful.
One company, two names
A common misreading has Valentino Garavani as a sub-brand, a diffusion line or a lower tier within the same company. Not so. Valentino Garavani is the naming convention for accessories, Valentino and Maison Valentino the ones for ready-to-wear, and all of it comes from one company applying one set of standards. A Rockstud crossbody bag and a couture gown are equally the work of the same house; only the wording on the label differs, for the contractual reason set out above. Creative direction moved from Pierpaolo Piccioli to Alessandro Michele, in charge of the house since 2024 according to the most recent confirmable reporting. On the ownership side, Mayhoola for Investments holds seventy per cent and Kering thirty per cent, the Kering stake acquired in July 2023 with a stated intention to take full ownership by 2028. The accessories carrying the longer name were observed in 2026 at market prices from about $650 for a VLogo Signature clutch to $7,900 for an embroidered Panthea, all made in Italy, and Rebag’s data puts average resale retention for the house near 41 per cent, with hero styles between 50 and 58 per cent.
What the word guarantees and what it does not
GARAVANI on a tag tells you which company made the bag. It is not by itself proof of authenticity, as counterfeiters copy tags just 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. Usually a serial number sits on a tag inside an interior pocket, often black, cream or light brown; not every bag has one, older pieces frequently do not, and a missing serial proves nothing on its own. There is no date-code system on these bags at all, so 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, with the serial matching the interior tag, though that 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, exactly as its 1979 obligation requires |
| Valentino outside with Mario Valentino inside or on the packaging | A genuine bag made by the separate Naples company |
| The interior tag carries no serial number | Common enough on older pieces and not proof of a fake by itself |
| A supposed date code | There is no such system for these bags |
| No authenticity card supplied with a pre-owned bag | Common: cards are often lost or never passed on |
How to read a listing before you buy
Most mistakes happen in the description rather than in the bag. A resale listing headed simply Valentino bag carries no information about which company made it, and sellers abbreviate constantly, sometimes without realising there is anything to abbreviate. Ask for a clear photograph of the interior tag before agreeing a price, and believe the tag rather than the title. 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, since that is what those chains’ own brand filters list. A single word on a tag settles the whole question, which is precisely why it pays to know how the word got there.
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