Valentino – Quiet No More
Get an exclusive look at Valentino‘s Spring 2025 couture fashion show from the runways of Paris Couture Fashion Week, held in January 2025.
By Mackenzie Richard
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Old-world opulence, Maximalism, & Cinematic grandeur
A new chapter has begun for Valentino, one draped in grandeur, extravagance, and an unapologetic embrace of maximalism.
Alessandro Michele’s debut couture collection for the house was nothing short of stunning—dramatic, decadent, and undeniably couture. It was a showcase that kept us guessing, offering look after look that felt distinct yet united by a singular artistic vision. The anticipation surrounding Michele’s interpretation of Valentino was high, and he met it with a collection that was as lavish as it was deliberate, as historical as it was modern.
From the outset, it was clear that Michele had taken the house into fresh territory while still acknowledging its DNA.
The collection took up space—voluminous skirts, enormous bows, and layers upon layers of fabric transformed into couture masterpieces.
Yet, amidst the visual feast, he balanced his signature excess with moments of restraint, incorporating black and white looks that grounded the collection while maintaining its opulence.
Michele’s brilliance has always been in his ability to create a cohesive whole from seemingly disparate elements, and this collection was no exception. If it’s a list, as he notes in his 200-page show notes, it’s written by the same hand. This ethos was evident in how he paired aristocratic, old-world glamour with Valentino’s contemporary spirit. Some pieces felt plucked straight from a grand oil portrait—if I were to sit for one today, it would certainly be in one of these looks.
Take Look 20, for example, a cascading tower of extravagant red ruffles that screamed opulence. But Michele understands pacing—he immediately followed with Look 21, a sleek black-and-white ensemble, offering a moment of visual reprieve before bringing back the red in Look 22. It was storytelling through silhouette, a masterclass in balancing drama with rhythm.
Even the so-called “simpler” pieces carried layers of intricacy. Look 37 exemplified this, proving that even in its quieter moments, the collection was still brimming with artisanal detail.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
The question lingers: where is Valentino in all of this? Does Michele’s maximalist vision risk overwhelming the house’s codes, or is this simply Valentino reimagined through his distinctive lens? Rather than offering a straightforward dialogue between past and present, Michele approached this collection as a vast, ever-expanding archive of ideas—what he calls “the vertigo of the list.”
Inspired by Umberto Eco’s exploration of accumulation and enumeration, Michele envisioned each look as an entry in an infinite catalog of fashion, history, and culture. Instead of drawing a single line between Valentino’s past and his own vision, he embraced a more fluid, open-ended approach, where textiles, colors, and references fold into one another, creating a feverish and poetic layering of meaning.
Valentino, under Michele, is no longer confined to a singular aesthetic but exists as a multiplicity—an unfolding, unfinished story.
Yet perhaps that is precisely what was needed. After Pierpaolo Piccioli’s refined and poetic tenure, Michele’s arrival feels like an embrace of not-so-quiet luxury. There will be no doubt when you are wearing this Valentino—it is a new era, one that is loud, dramatic, and deeply romantic.
This was a moment of fashion history in the making—an iconic, uncompromising vision of couture.
