Valentino F/W 2025.26 Paris

[PDFSD]

more CD´s should be more engaging with what the brand or houses stand for already and not do always a 180 on clients not everyone is Hedi lol

 

[fashionsavvvvvy]

There is 2 or 3 ideas i like here, if only he invested in that more. At some points he have to change or else this is not looking good

 

[Frederic01]

susannanicoletti.substack.com/p/2025-the-great-gatsby-syndrome-of

Valentino. It seems that people are nervous and tense in piazza Mignanelli. It seems that the business is not peaking up.
Especially the leather goods. Wasn’t Michele the genius of best seller bags?

I mean, is anyone surprised? The bread and butter of Valentino was the accessories, which MGC and PP set up pretty early on in their tenure.

Alessandro is a designer that does not live in the reality of the fashion landscape right now. He thinks: I'll do fantasy and extravaganza and everyone will just come running for my vision. But it's like no. That worked at Gucci but that was ten years ago. In the year 2025 that approach is not as fresh and clearly not resonating with the current clientele.

I heard the Haute Couture was an absolute flop. A lot of the clientele were delighted by the theatre of the show, but when it came to the actual pieces and wearability, they pretty much rejected it. I know a few women who flat out told the people in the salon they preferred Pierpaolo.

For me, he has lost touch with reality completely. This collection is proof of that. And the fact that the accessories are flopping, but he isn't really putting any focus or real effort into them - well that just tells you everything you need to know about this guy.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

That kitty gown has Ms. Sutton Stracke’s name written all over it!

 

[Armani]

Currently uploading pictures from this show to the models’ threads and nearly just accidentally titled a post with "Gucci FW25"… that’s when you know it’s bad 😭

 

[Ninocka98]

Awful but anyway I think he will not stay for long here

 

[Cocteau Stone]

The archival references are exhausting. I mean he’s already done the Valentino archive to death at Gucci, so it has little impact here.

I’m sure the pieces individually are splendid, for the most part, but everything else is just vertigo inducing vomit. Poor styling, odd makeup, BAAAAAAD models and their inability to walk properly and a nonsensical set. Based on the music as it ramped up, I wonder of Michele was enamoured by the sound design of The Substance…

 

[Nader]

disjointed, all over the place, tryhard, impractical and deranged

 

[disco54]

There is some really good tailoring here but lot of this is just soo heavy handed and stale. The suits at Valentino need to get Carine Roitfeld and tell AM how to create a modern, sophisticated yet sexy show. That being said in stores , lot of this sh!t looks good , AM for all this weirdness knows how to put out nice tailored pant suits.

 

[tourbillions]

hate the whole "let me just put some archival looks and drown it with whatever i found from grandmas attic"

 

[Frederic01]

Big Drama Cannot Distract From Irrelevant Clothes​

It’s the wrong moment for the fashion theatrics of Valentino, McQueen and Dior. But Balenciaga got it right.

The Valentino show took place in a bathroom.

Or not a bathroom, exactly, but a big box in the courtyard of the Institut du Monde Arabe constructed to look like a large genderless public bathroom. One lined in toilet stalls and sinks (no urinals) and glowing luridly Valentino red. The models emerged from the toilet stalls in full, kooky Valentino-by-Alessandro-Michele glory: long lace dresses with cats’ faces on torso or waist and short bourgeois skirt suits over bike shorts; polka dot pants with floral neckties; balaclavas and handbags galore.

Why? Well, according to Mr. Michele, it had to do with peeking into what he called the “metatheater” of intimacy and the liminal space where we transform our private self into our public self through dress. Though a stage set that suggests a brand, or at least its heritage, is in the toilet is perhaps not the metaphor he really should have been going for.

Instead it seemed more like a potent example of the current problem with fashion’s amateur theatrics.

Once upon a time that sort of fantasy role-play framed a bigger point; one that gave an origin story to the garments and created a dazzling emotive connection. Or so it was at the turn of the millennium when these sorts of productions transformed the catwalks of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, the masters of the craft (that’s also why that Galliano Margiela couture from January 2024 is still a reference point).

Increasingly, however, as shows have gotten ever closer to entertainment, designers seem to have lost sight of that connection, using visual histrionics and grandiosity to get attention (and break through the chaos of social media), rather than focusing on the reason the collections exist in the first place: to offer succinct propositions for how we want to look next. It’s as if they believe that, with enough decoration, no one will notice that they haven’t actually come up with any new ideas.

NYTIMES

 

[Xone]

NYTIMES

Seems short review but very adequate....hope others join too...

 

[Alquimista]

Very cool show notes. Indeed public toilets can be very intimate, sexual! Lol but what about the clothes? Michele only designed the set? Cause there is no mention of clothes. Eh.

Nytimes got it right. He made a good show, cool set but clothes were stale.

 

[Lola701]

hate the whole "let me just put some archival looks and drown it with whatever i found from grandmas attic"

I find it quite cringe when people are putting looks from Valentino side by side to Alessandro’s. It’s like pulling stuff from random collections to justify this.
I don’t think we ever had to do the same for Pierpaolo and MGC or when PPP was on his own. Yet their Valentino was convincing enough and relevant enough for the name attached to the clothes.

When Hedi did « La bourgeoise », nobody was discussing the fact that it was Celine enough. However, when he did the Rock groupie, now there were discussions.

The spirit of the house and it codes are far more important than direct references.

 

[GoldenPetals]

I don't know if Mr Garavani himself has shared his thoughts about his successors at all since his departure, but I can't see him being more embarrassed of anyone more than this guy.

 

[LadyJunon]

NYTIMES

Let's be honest, I wouldn't necessarily say that Balenciaga got it right either.

It's kind of a shame too, because I really would've loved to see that opulent theatrical maximalism come back with a vengeance.

 

[GoldenPetals]

Yet their Valentino was convincing enough and relevant enough for the name attached to the clothes.

Because they understood the Valentino formula. Make small incremental changes that experiment with the house codes but preserve the overall timelessness of the house. This is the first time I feel that a Valentino successor has done something that's just beneath the house.

 

[GoldenPetals]

Bring back Alessandra Facchinetti (unless she's still launching her own label)

 

[JohannesL]

Erdem Moralioglu！

 

[penny609]

It's kind of a shame too, because I really would've loved to see that opulent theatrical maximalism come back with a vengeance.

A million times yes. And this feels like pretty tedious, viewed from this angle. I'd definitely be in for something going that way but full force. But you can't do this while being at Valentino. I just read some of the previous successors or Valentino Garavani "understood better his legacy" or whatever, I personally doubt they did, but it's much more of a heartache (or headache) to see Alessandro Michele neither being able to really do what he's good at nor recreating some decent Valentino vibes with his own touch on the top of it.