Why That Second Word on Your Valentino Bag Is Garavani
Turn a Valentino bag inside out and the tag hands you 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. GARAVANI sits on the bag because a contract signed in 1979 requires it to be there, and that same requirement is why the word runs throughout the advertising for the house’s leather goods. Understanding the reason turns a piece of trivia into the single most useful check a buyer can make. What follows explains where the word comes from, what it guarantees and what it does not.
The one-sentence version
Overlapping rights to the word Valentino on handbags in the United States belong to another company, and the Roman couture house agreed decades ago to add its founder’s surname 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. Mario Valentino states it 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. In 1979 a coexistence agreement divided the marks between the two businesses; among its terms is one obliging Valentino S.p.A. to use GARAVANI alongside VALENTINO on leather goods and in the advertising for www.valintinobags.com them. So the word on your bag 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
Together with Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino Garavani founded the house in Rome in 1960 and opened the first atelier on Via Condotti. For close to five decades he designed under his own name, retiring from design in 2007 and showing his 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. 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 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. Both directions are covered: each business gets a defined set of permissions and a defined set of limits. Decades later the arrangement was tested 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. 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. Ending without prejudice means either side may bring the matter back, and reporting indicates further proceedings, arbitrations among them, remained live in Italy. No wrongdoing was established against either company, and none is suggested here: this is a trademark boundary between two legitimate businesses.
What the Naples company can do
The agreement entitles 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. A condition comes with 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. Combining V and Valentino together on leather goods is not permitted. Its products 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 treated that way.
What the Roman house is obliged to do
The obligation running the other way is narrower and far more visible. For leather goods and their advertising, Valentino S.p.A. uses the mark VALENTINO GARAVANI rather than 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. 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 house, two names
A common misreading has Valentino Garavani as a sub-brand, a diffusion line or a lower tier within the same company. That is wrong. 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. 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. Creative direction moved from Pierpaolo Piccioli to Alessandro Michele, in charge of the house since 2024 according to the most recent confirmable reporting. Ownership sits with Mayhoola for Investments at seventy per cent and Kering at thirty per cent, that stake 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 the word guarantees and what it does not
GARAVANI on a tag tells you which company made the bag. On its own it proves nothing about authenticity, since counterfeiters copy tags as readily as they copy studs. The checks that matter are physical: 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, 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 is in front of you | What it actually means |
|---|---|
| VALENTINO and GARAVANI together on the interior tag | The Roman couture house made it, as 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 anywhere on the interior tag | Possible on older pieces and not proof of a fake by itself |
| Anything presented as a date code | No such system exists for these bags |
| A pre-owned bag with no authenticity card | Ordinary, because cards are often lost or never passed on |
What to read in a listing before buying
Mistakes usually live in the description rather than in the bag. Where a resale listing is headed simply Valentino bag, it carries no information about which company made it; sellers abbreviate constantly, sometimes without realising there is anything to abbreviate. Request a clear photograph of the interior tag before you agree a price, then believe what the tag says over 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. 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 exactly why it is worth knowing how the word got there.
