Valentino was the hottest ticket of this Paris fashion week, and the show had a sense of occasion to match.
A vast floor was laid with smashed mirror tiles, glittering like a ballroom after an earthquake. Five hundred armchairs and a smattering of glowing lamps lay beneath a shroud of white sheets, as if a grand house had been locked up for a long winter. The house of Valentino was shaking off the cobwebs for a new era and hitting the dancefloor.
This was the return to fashion’s top table of Alessandro Michele, one of fashion’s biggest characters, a maverick in a baseball cap and pearls, a designer who quotes Heidegger and goes on holiday with Harry Styles.
Michele made his name leading Gucci to glory, tripling annual revenues there to $10bn (£7.5bn) during his tenure and making it the most exciting brand in fashion for five years. Valentino and Gucci have long vied for bragging rights in Italian fashion, so Michele’s signing at Valentino not only brings his main character energy back to the centre of fashion, but turns up the heat on that rivalry. In non-fashion terms, if Jürgen Klopp were to take over at Manchester United, this Valentino show would be the equivalent of his first game at Old Trafford.
The kooky, hippy-bearded Michele is an intriguing choice for this house. Its founder, Valentino Garavani, who exited the business 16 years ago at the age of 76, held court with mahogany tan and a coterie of lapdogs over a bygone era of glamour. His holidays were spent with Jackie Onassis.
Michele took the jewel-toned Roman sophistication of Valentino and spiked it with the same magpie spirit with which he revved up Gucci. So there were crisp ladylike jackets, but also crystal nose rings. Romantic tiered gowns, and kitsch bellhop jackets. Seventies haute bourgeoisie ladies in trailing chiffons, and Gen Z boys in tattoos and pearls.
The models’ faces were veiled, dramatically shaded under picture hats or decorated with jewels strung from molar to molar so that they rested on the lower lip. Grownup handbags were held with the chain straps trailing messily, like a teddy bear being carried by one arm.
It shouldn’t work, but it did. Beneath the riotous jumble, Michele conjures a very specific world: a sophisticated, voluptuous iconoclasm which has an enormous ego but tons of charm. The playbook here was taken from his success at Gucci, but the references were new and particular to Valentino.
For all the layers, each silhouette was precise. Every detail had a backstory. The nose and the mouth were decorated, Michele said, because fashion is about the senses. He took archival references from the 1970s – “Valentino’s golden age” – along with nuggets from the 1960s and early 1980s. The matchstick-tip red which is Valentino’s house colour flared bright.
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Valentino is about a fifth the size of Gucci, but Kering, which owns a 30% stake, has ambitions to scale it to compete with fashion’s big names. For that, Valentino must get people paying attention, which is where Michele comes in. His kooky clothes are not to everyone’s taste, but he makes fashion that catches the imagination because his aesthetic is as much about styling as garments.
This show was full of ideas and tricks that will be worn by a much larger audience than can afford Valentino price tags: turbans, polka dot gloves, white lace tights layered with ankle socks, John Lennon glasses worn with beanies, tiny black ribbon bows dotted all over pigtails like butterflies on lavender.
Michele, one of fashion’s big beasts, has injected energy into the final days of the catwalk season. He described this collection as “an enchantment of the world” along with “the sacredness of a breast full of milk … the pursuit of fireflies seeking love … the touch of organza ruffles … the miracle of libraries.” In a red check shirt and jeans, he told reporters after the show that “my work comes from my gut. Clearly, it’s about me. But I have a beautiful new home.”