Valentino Bids The Runway Adieu

Italian designer Valentino said farewell to fashion with a star-studded haute couture show in Paris Wednesday, capping a 45-year career that saw him dressing luminaries from Jackie Kennedy Onassis to Julia Roberts.

Celebrities, socialites and fashion editors gave the 75-year-old couturier a rousing standing ovation as a smiling Valentino took his bow, flanked by dozens of models dressed in identical gowns in his trademark shade of red.

Indeed, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips, "The finale was a tribute to not just the clothes he designed, but to the color he's credited with inventing -- Valentino Red."

"I am extremely happy," Valentino told reporters backstage. "That is why I am not emotional, because I feel very strong and to have this demonstration of affection, of love, of such generosity - I really am on cloud nine!"

Valentino, said Phillips, "didn't just dominate fashion, he became fashion."

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Photos: Fashion's Numero Uno

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Actresses Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu joined supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Eva Herzigova at a tent in the Rodin Museum to watch a parade of the stunning evening gowns that have made Valentino king of the red carpet.

"I'm sad to see it end," said Thurman.

Dresses were draped, shirred and flounced in liquid silk, sun-pleated chiffon and feather-light organdy. White goddess gowns were set off by sparkling rhinestones, while day suits came in sherbet shades of lemon, almond and apricot.

It was an object lesson in style from the designer who has never strayed from his mantra: to keep a woman looking her best.

Seamstresses from Valentino's couture workshop in Rome, dressed in white laboratory coats, wiped away tears as decades of close collaboration came to an end.

Fashion editors paid tribute to Valentino, who has dressed film stars, first ladies and crowned heads including Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Nancy Reagan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Queen Rania of Jordan.

"He really understood how rich women wanted to dress," said Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar magazine. "That is something which sounds so obvious but in fact is very rare, and I think he will be dearly missed."

Perpetually tanned and always impeccably dressed, Valentino shares the lifestyle of his jet set patrons. As Phillips put it, "He didn't just dress the rich and famous, he was one of them. His lavish lifestyle of chateau's and yachts often out-glammed theirs."

The couturier owns, among many other things, a chateau near Paris, a 152-foot yacht, and an art collection that includes works by Picasso and Miro.

He celebrated his label's 45th anniversary in July with three days of parties in Rome, prompting speculation that he was ready to retire following the purchase of Valentino Fashion Group by British-based private equity fund Permira for $3.8 billion.

After repeatedly denying such plans, Valentino and longtime business partner Giancarlo Giammetti announced in September their decision to step down. Permira has appointed Alessandra Facchinetti, formerly at Gucci, to take over design duties at the label.

Facchinetti confessed she was daunted by the task.

"I'm very emotional tonight," she said. "There is nothing else that I can say, except that, you know, he's my maestro."

Although he will no longer be in the design studio, Valentino has a full slate of projects for the coming months.

After a cameo in the 2006 movie "The Devil Wears Prada," he will hit the big screen again in "Valentino: The Last Emperor," a fly-on-the-wall documentary directed by Vanity Fair special correspondent Matt Tyrnauer.

This will be followed by a fashion retrospective in June at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Valentino has strong links with France, where he learned his trade, and will be made an honorary citizen of Paris in a ceremony Thursday.

Giammetti said the duo was also working on opening a foundation in Rome that will include a school for young designers.