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Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele’s “river of inspiration” flowed in red across the back of the set in the form of a list. Behind each image was a dizzying array of literary, art historical, and cinematic references: Venetian carnivals, Commedia dell’Arte, medieval nuns and Marie Antoinette, Georgian pantaloons and Victorian crinolines, silent film stars and cardinals, poets and theorists, and more.
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
But, of course, Michele’s main creative concern was the Valentino archive , from which he drew ideas about the “beauty, elegance and luxury” of Valentino Garavani.
“I had an incredible list of references. First of all, I tried to go back to my personal passions as a Roman. Looking through the Valentino archives, I remembered my passion for historical costume – a dream, a metaphysical idea of fashion.”
Hence the collection includes bows, ruffles, cascades, lace, frills and oriental patterns from the Valentino collections of the 60s-80s. And, of course, polka dots and red, which Garavani himself loved so much.
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
Valentino Garavani celebrated his 46th birthday in costumes inspired by Federico Fellini’s film “Clowns”. It is a film about a circus where the atmosphere is “game and execution, celebration and carnage, grace and madness and – CLOWNS!”
Valentino Garavani’s 46th Birthday Party
It is from here that Michele gets his references to the circus and his beloved esotericism – masks, clown headdresses, Harlequin collars, silk trousers and capes resembling knight’s armor, over delicate silk.
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
Michele’s visuals featured familiar, inimitable Garavani touches: fine pleating on silk sleeves; intricate ruffles and pastel floral prints on chiffon; diamond stitching with gemstone inserts; rows of ruffles on blouses. Michele reshaped some of them, using crinolines.
“I thought if I took a 1950s dress and put it on a crinoline, it would look like a dress from Versailles!”
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
The dress, woven from a multitude of silk ribbons, was a reincarnation of a dress from Valentino ‘s 1992 couture collection.
Valentino Spring 1992 Couture
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
The red moiré silk dress was a reference to the Pope’s robe.
“When I was a child and walked the streets of Rome, I saw priests in red robes. I think Rome is a really surreal culture. That’s what Fellini saw.”
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
Michele’s debut for Valentino Haute Couture was more like a film screening than a regular fashion show. This was supported by the dynamic set design and each look from the collection, which was a real story, collected from the world and archives of two Romans – Valentino Garavani and Alessandro Michele.
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
The shoes deserve a separate comment – each pair can be inserted into a golden baroque frame with stucco and hung in the best museums of the world. Shoes and lace tights embroidered with pearls, precious stones, gold threads – this is beauty that takes your breath away.
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
At the end of the show, Sergei Prokofiev’s “Dance of the Knights” began to play, the lights flickered, the models one after another quickly ran down the catwalk, and their crinolines, capes and flowing hair moved as if in slow motion. This increased the absolutely dizzying effect of the show, and finally the puzzle came together and it became clear why the collection was called “Vertigo”.
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture Show Finale
Collection details.
Valentino Spring 2025 Couture
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