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The creative director calls it “hyper beauty”. Titled, Avant les Début, the Resort 2025 collection reveals Valentino’s ultra-glamorous side
Alessandro Michele will always be a maximalist. Appointed just two months ago, the creative director unveiled his first collection for Valentino with their Resort 2025 collection, heralding a new era for the House. Founder Valentino Garavani’s codes lie in refined and rich Roman heritage, where his style incorporated glitterati chic often doused in red. Michele, on the other hand, includes a grand, glamorous, and vintage-inspired aesthetic. Mesmerizing shapes here, fascinating embellishments there—never quiet, these loud elements made quite a noise within the industry. Now that Michele is leading a new perspective at Valentino, where does the Roman maison go from here?
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Valentino currently oozes a luxurious yet laid-back aesthetic, like a ’70s hippie who has gone to finishing school and received their trust fund—softness wrapped in layers of grand glamour. It’s a type of sophistication that’s inviting and inclusive, with a magnetic enticement, even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea; perhaps because it seems familiar.
Maximalism cannot get any louder than Michele’s touch: Pussy bows, animal print, and embellishments that swing rapidly across soft-stockings covered-calves in multicolored tones, whether in ravishing red or vivacious violet, sometimes in sheer lace under ballet flats with gem accents. They come to completion within the collection.
As he showcased his first collection of 171 looks online, Alessandro Michele stated, “Valentino was never a minimalist, rather a maximalist, even in the ’70s when he was at his most streamlined. There was always a very Roman sense of opulence and excess to his work, distilled through an obsession for beauty.”
He further pointed out, “It’s the same idea of masculinity and femininity that has always interested me, and it’s still there. My practice is made through my very own hands and eyes, through my imagination and sentiment, it comes from my belly and from an emotional place. I’m my own guarantor.”
It’s interesting to see Michele’s perspective on Valentino; it’s almost like a reboot of a film through the lens of a new generation, for a new generation. Here, the creative director reveals his true nature: his creative outline doesn’t change because he’s from a different house. In theory, it stays the same, switched and shifted accordingly but more so still himself, artistically so. His idea of beauty reflects who he is, and vice-versa.
Yet, does it adhere to Valentino’s established codes, or is it a manifestation of the creative director’s singular vision? Does it pay homage to the founder by extending its Roman roots, or does it reinterpret them through a modern Romanesque lens? There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but sometimes the narrative can be misconstrued. It almost feels like Alessandro Michele could own a House himself instead, though in today’s economy, real estate is hard to come by.
Photos and Featured Image: VALENTINO
