The rumors were true: Alessandro Michele is heading to Valentino, a “maison de couture,” he says in a company release, “that has the word ‘beauty’ carved on a collective story, made of distinctive elegance, refinement and extreme grace. My first thought goes to this story,” he continues: “to the richness of its cultural and symbolic heritage, to the sense of wonder it constantly generates, to the very precious identity given with their wildest love by founding fathers, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti. These references always represented an essential source of inspiration for me, and I’m going to praise such influence through my own interpretation and creative vision.”
Having spent hours looking through archival images, I can confirm that those references appear in Michele’s previous work. A keen student of history and an expert on Italian fashion, the designer’s magpie collections paid homage in a forthright way (trompe l’oeil, prints, pleats) to the output of such homegrown talents as Roberta di Camerino, Emilio Pucci, and Roberto Capucci. The Valentino-isms are more subtle, but they are very much present as Michele is fascinated by the ’70s, the decade in which Garavani became a king of fashion and put the haute in haute bohemian. You can see that in the famous 1970 photograph of Jackie O. and Garavani letting their hair down in Capri, as well as in the designer’s love of animal prints, Eastern-inspired textiles, and Chinoiserie, which he applied at the time to both his garments and interiors. When writing about Garavani’s fabric tented terrace in Rome, Vogue wrote that he “brought the best of Italian workmanship to shape a place of romantic surprises and no accidents. From the fit of fabrics on walls and cushions to the metal bindings on doors, the rooms have a correctness, an authority of detail that raise voluptuous outbursts of fantasy to a new order.”
That last bit could describe Michele’s m.o. at Gucci. He had good preparation for such indulgences, having studied at the Accademia di Costume e di Moda in Rome where fashion and costume design are taught in tandem. Michele graduated at the beginning of the ’90s, an era that channeled the ’70s—which is arguably the decade most aligned with today in terms of culture and fashion. The mid ’60s Youth Quake had upended designers’ hegemony on trends and total looks in favor using separates that encouraged more individual expressions of styles; the ’70s is where Alessandro Michele and Valentino Garavani meet on a Venn diagram. Whether or not the Roman designer will circle back to that point or spin the house in another direction is the billion dollar question. The world will be watching. Below, scroll through 10 Valentino signatures that Michele has already explored in his work.
An Elegant Flourish
White Nights
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Romantic Ruffles
Blue-and-White
Cat Power
An Embellished Jacket
Partnerships and Novelties
Romantic Ruffles
Evening Drama
Boho Deluxe
