Alessandro Michele on Valentino Couture Debut: ‘This Is Like a Ferrari’

PARIS — Imagine being a Roman-born designer and being handed the keys to the most quintessentially Roman couture house.

For Alessandro Michele, who on Wednesday joined the most rarefied ranks of his profession with his debut made-to-measure collection for Valentino, it was both dazzling and a little bit dizzying.

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He had designed elaborate red carpet gowns during his prior tenure at Gucci, but this was his first time steering a couture atelier.

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“It’s like when you like to drive a car and someone gives you a Ferrari,” he told WWD in an interview at the brand’s salon on Place Vendôme.

The notes for his collection, titled “Vertigineux,” took the shape of lists attached to each outfit, as he attempted to capture the frenzy of creativity now at his fingertips. But the act of making the clothes is closer to a religious experience, in his opinion. “It’s like meditation,” said Michele, who likes to crochet in his spare time.

Ahead of the show, WWD sat down with the designer to talk about heritage, history and the magic of the human hand.

Alessandro Michele takes a bow at the end of the Valentino spring 2025 haute couture show

WWD: How do you feel on the eve of your first Valentino couture show in Paris?

Alessandro Michele: Probably it’s something that I dreamt [of] for a long time, and I didn’t know.

I’m stressed, nervous, but happy. It’s a different way of working.

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You must care about the dress and every single detail and what you’re doing, what is going to be visible, but also what is going to be invisible for the audience. But it’s such an incredible ride that I’m still trying to understand it.

It’s not where I came from, because I came from sketches and a pencil, a fax. Now it’s all about scrolling and living through social media, the web, artificial intelligence. Here, you have just a contact with something that seems to be more powerful in 2025. It’s the tri-dimensional experience of something, and you can’t scroll. This job needs your time, your body, your brain, your passion.

WWD: This house is a couture house originally, with a renowned atelier. Does this change your approach?

A.M.: It’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.

I’ve worked with many very talented people, tailors, but here, there is something magical. It’s a real heritage, because there are still people working in the atelier that have been here since the age of 15.

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WWD: Yes, I heard some of the retired atelier workers are teaching the new arrivals.

A.M.: It’s a school. It’s not just a heritage of the brand, but it’s a heritage of humanity also, because they never stopped making clothes.

This atelier is a real one. They make clothes for clients, and they didn’t go through a real crisis ever.

There are brands that changed their skin as a brand. I mean, I can think of a few, and they didn’t identify anymore with that heritage. Here, it’s not heritage. It’s the house. They are the heart of the house.

The finale of the Valentino spring 2025 haute couture show
The finale of the Valentino spring 2025 haute couture show.

WWD: How is it making fashion at this house?

A.M.: You really feel like it’s alive, because every single stitch, every single thing, is made by hand.

It’s very emotional. It’s like time no longer exists, because you lose yourself. It’s like you’re praying, repeating the same gestures in that delicate way and focusing your attention on something so tiny. I think there is something religious.

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You feel like you need to have a kind of reverence for it. I would never take that jacket and put it on the chair like this. When you touch it, I mean, you are in another position. You think that this is a masterpiece, that you want to keep it forever.

WWD: But do you think you have to design couture differently than from when Mr. Valentino was doing it because you’re in the attention economy now?

A.M.: Not really. I think that I really worked in a very free way, also because here, it’s about doing just the best, you know, doing the best dress.

There is a moment when you feel yourself in a bubble. It’s a beautiful bubble.

WWD: How did you approach the collection? 

A.M.: I had to be careful because I can go crazy, because it’s a lot. It’s like when you like to drive a car and someone gives you a Ferrari. It could be really dangerous, because you can die. For me, this is like a Ferrari. It’s the highest level, so I went through many of my obsessions, and I went through a huge quantity of references, because I started thinking about also how everything started in this house between Rome and Paris, and Mr. Valentino working here, being in Rome, being in Paris. I was thinking about that process. I was thinking about also the big idea of movies, costumes and his archive, materials, things, works.

Every single dress is an incredible, never-ending list of things — like, crazy. And it’s not easy to get to the end of the list, doing something like this.

We made a list of the materials. We tried to put some kind of order into that mess, but it’s also a philosophical reflection and thoughts about what it’s about when you’re doing a dress, in my brain, in my imagination.

There is really a huge vertigo of this list, of beauty and here, the vertigo is really dangerous, because you are at the top floor.

The Valentino spring 2025 haute couture show set
The Valentino spring 2025 haute couture show set.

WWD: We’ve seen couture sometimes oscillate toward more minimalism and architectural lines. This collection takes us into a maximalist world where it’s dense and rich and historical.

A.M.: It’s like an homage to my job, going back also to the very beginning of this incredible business, when Mr. [Charles] Worth moved from London to Paris.

He was not French. He was English. Isn’t that incredible? I was going back to him, because he was the first one that understood the power of the clothes. He put the label inside with his name, and he was an immigrant from England to Paris. I mean, an amazing immigrant, because he was doing clothes for the bourgeoisie, the wife of Napoleon III.

I remember when I was really young and I was starting to work in this business, I did hundreds of research trips.

There was an amazing shop in London that doesn’t exist anymore, and they had so many Worth dresses. I knew him from my old studies. I saw them in pictures, but I didn’t really touch them. And when I saw the dresses and the label, I was like, ‘Wow.’ They looked so contemporary.

That’s something that came to my mind, because I like historical costumes because they are so alive. It’s the beginning of everything. You wouldn’t have a tailleur without that kind of caged gown.

WWD: What’s your take on Paris Couture Week and the clients and others who convene here?

A.M.: It’s extraordinary, unbelievable. If you don’t know, you could never imagine something like this. It’s such a crazy audience, crazy and beautiful. I met so many of these kind of clients when I was working on high jewelry at Gucci, and it’s been really an experience. And they have such a great relationship in terms of humanity with the ladies in the salon, they’re incredible.

It’s a whole experience. It’s not just the show. The show will be beautiful for me. It’s the end, but it’s not the end. It’s just a part of the script.

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