Alessandro Michele will give his debut presentation for Valentino during Paris Fashion Week on Sunday. The designer, who left Gucci in 2022, was announced as the house’s new creative director in March. Michele succeeds Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, whose departure was revealed just days before Michele’s appointment.
In an Instagram post, Michele wrote that his new role comes with “tremendous responsibility.”
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“[Valentino] has engraved the word ‘beauty’ in a collective story full of research and extreme grace. My first thought goes to this story: to the richness of its cultural and symbolic heritage, to the sense of wonder that it has been able to continually generate, to the very valuable identity that its founders, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, have given it. with unbridled love. These are references that have always been an indisputable source of inspiration for me and to which I would like to pay tribute by rereading them from my creative vision.”
Ahead of Michele’s first Valentino fashion show, WWD provides an introduction to the designer, as well as his legacy at labels like Gucci and Fendi.
Michele’s parents inspired his love of art
Speaking to WWD in 2017, Michele explained the impact his father, an aerospace engineer, had on his passion for art. His mother was also in the creative field and worked as an assistant to a film director.
“My father was an artist,” Michele said. “He really influenced my life enormously. My mother did that too. They fascinated me when I was a kid because my mother was obsessed with movies and my father with art and other things. And nature and animals and crazy things. So I think I was so lucky because that’s what I grew up with.
Michele worked under Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi
At the age of 25, Michele was hired at Fendi. Under the guidance of Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi, he designed leather goods and met his future Gucci predecessor, Frida Giannini. Michele was eventually promoted to senior accessories designer.
Decades later, Michele still thinks back fondly on his time at the label. In a 2017 interview with WWD, Michele said Fendi was “the best place to learn how to be a creative person.”
“My experience with the brand was really impressive. Fendi is the only Italian brand; it felt like a couture studio. It wasn’t the kind of studio we normally see in fashion, in prêt-a-porter,” Michele explained. “It was very open to investigation. It was full of different inputs from outside, because Karl and Silvia really loved each other and they still like to always inject something new.
Michele started working at Gucci in 2002
Michele worked at Gucci for over ten years before being appointed creative director. When Giannini was hired at the fashion house in 2002, she brought Michele with her. He worked as an accessories designer under Tom Ford before being appointed associate creative director of Giannini in 2011. In that role, he was responsible for Gucci’s leather goods, shoes, jewelry and home collections.
Michele is credited with reinventing and revitalizing Gucci
Giannini left Gucci suddenly in 2015, while Michele rose to her previous position. At the time, Gucci sales were declining and president and CEO Marco Bizzarri was looking for someone with a new vision for the brand. He told WWD that Michele was “exactly the right person” for the role.
Its specialty in accessories was particularly appealing, as a source familiar with the company told WWD in 2015: “The Michele option reinforces the idea that Gucci wants to get back on track with popular accessories. There hasn’t been an iconic product in the last three or four seasons.”
Michele immediately got to work and completely redesigned Gucci’s Fall 2015 men’s collection within days. It was at that fashion show that he made his first bow for the brand, though his first official Gucci presentation as creative director was the Fall 2015 women’s collection. The designer wasted no time in reinventing Gucci’s image, creating eclectic, gender-fluid looks that would soon become his trademark.
However, Michele hasn’t left out Gucci staples like horsebit loafers, canvas handbags and the label’s iconic GG logo; instead, he’s breathed new life into them with funky twists like fur lining, crystal embellishments and embroidery. This boosted sales of Gucci accessories, which have traditionally been the house’s cash cow.
In 2017, Gucci saw its strongest sales increase in two decades, with organic sales rising 48.3 percent in the first quarter to 1.35 billion euros, or $1.44 billion.
During Michele’s tenure, Gucci stopped using real fur, introduced high jewelry and relaunched its beauty line.
Michele recently wrote his first book
The designer’s autobiography, “La Vita delle Forme: Filosofia del Reincanto [The Life of Shapes: Philosophy of Re-enchantment]” was published in May by HarperCollins Italia. The book, co-authored by Emanuele Coccia, bridges Michele’s passions for fashion and philosophy.
According to his writings, the creative director thought he would be fired after his first Gucci show. “I wasn’t thinking about the career,” Michele explained. “I am what I am and I just did what I thought was natural. I just wanted to talk about beauty.”
He also discussed learning about the concept of gender fluidity. “I had never heard of this term,” Michele wrote. “I just work by looking at what I see around me, and at the time it seemed completely normal to me.”
Michele is an avid collector
In his book, Michele admits that he collects various types of objects, including books, statues, skirts, chairs, pants, cups, paintings and vintage shoes.
“Everything is alive, regardless of their shape, size, purpose and importance,” the designer wrote. “It is not difficult to perceive the breath of what surrounds us: if you pay attention, everything begins to speak. And it is for this reason that observing any object is like entering a library where things whisper, mutter, sing.”
One of Michele’s stranger collections is his menagerie of ceramic pugs, some of which date back to the 18th century. This sparked his interest in working at the old porcelain brand Ginori – owned by Gucci – where he was creative director from 2011 to 2014.
Michele debuted his first Valentino collection in 2024
Michele surprised the fashion world with his first collection for Valentino, which was unveiled in June. The resort 2025 line includes 171 looks spanning both women’s and men’s clothing.
The designer delved into Valentino’s archives for inspiration, nodding to multiple decades including the ’50s, ’70s and ’80s.
“I love objects, I have an intimate relationship with material things, it is almost a religious gathering and I feel a great privilege to be able to touch each other [Garavani’s] designs, as if they were a relic of his life,” Michele told WWD. “The carpets, the Chinese vases, the beautiful things with which he surrounded himself determined his designs. He enhanced beauty. I share the same kind of relationship with fashion as a great vehicle for freedom.”
First look at Alessandro Michele’s debut collection for Valentino
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Launch gallery: first look at Alessandro Michele’s debut collection for Valentino
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