Aside from the usual curiosity about the concepts and ideas behind the very big amount of new proposals we get each season, there is always an extra excitement and hype when a debut collection is happening; nothing can match the high of staring at the countdown clock on a livestream that will soon unveil the future of one of the fashion houses more adored and more respected. This countdown started the moment Alessandro Michele was announced as the new creative director of Valentino, and the excitement got controlled but also reached a new peak when the Cruise Collection was revealed some months ago, where we understood that no matter which name houses him, all of Michele's creations will be, at last, multiple versions of him. What we saw yesterday was the realisation of our hopes for this new start; this was Valentino by Alessandro Michele and luckily for the sake of fashion, we got the best of both worlds.
Paris Fashion Week comes with great expectations, and the greatest of them all this season was the debut of a man who shaped a new creative vision at his previous house and that was meant to do the same at his new home. The biggest challenge Michelle faced this season was different from what usual debut collections represent for its creator. It is not a collection where we will be testing the abilities of the creative director—we're talking about Alessandro, of course he’s going to do well—the challenge was to make us stop associating him with a brand he doesn't belong to anymore. I won't lie and say that I didn't start typing “Guc-” when looking for the Instagram account of the house before starting to write this, but that’s an action force of a habit that I'm sure won't happen again, not after what Pavillon des Folies did.
From the start, when the livestream shows the arrivals of the very important guest that will sit in the front row—a whole runway on its own—we got a glimpse of the retro inspiration this collection will have, an idea already familiar and expected taking into account the multiple references to the past and the Valentino of the 70s Alessandro included on the Cruise Collection. All the looks worn by the invitees were a spoiler in itself, but a rather nice one. We have to admit seeing Harry Styles reappear in a colourful outfit and big sunglasses was not exactly helpful with the whole mindshift process, but we promise we’ll get there. The venue that housed this new start was breathtaking, straight out of a dream, with warm dim lights coming from antique lamps surrounded by equally antique furniture and all covered in a delicate veil that gives the impression of an old vintage shop that had its glory days and that now holds precious memories under the cover.
The collection itself felt like it belonged to this nostalgic past life, and even before we started pondering whether, from an unbiased point of view, this had the Valentino essence we were looking for, we couldn't help but admit that every look was beautiful. Beauty is a concept Alessandro talks about on the poetic show notes released after it: "We know: when we build beauty, or we spot it in the undifferentiated and chaotic flow of our existences, it feels like being raptured in a state of joy that can tear us away from senselessness," and that's a very similar feeling to the one felt when watching each look appear on the runway. Aside from the technicalities of fashion reviews, whether this seam was well finished or if this silhouette had never been done before, there are moments when there's a need to tap into the most human and sensible side all fashion lovers have, and there are collections that couldn't be described any better than with the sentence: “That was a beautiful collection.”
Multiple elements, apart from the general aesthetic, directly referenced what the master Valentino Garavani did while on his brand: the bows, the flowers, the embelishments, the bohème luxury of the 70s and 80s that's impossible to replicate in our less romantic era, and it was nice to confirm once and for all how Alessandro knows exactly how to handle these elements; this is not his first time using them. His unique hand on styling helps bring the antique visions to a modern territory; the accessories and complements, like the multiple headpieces, glasses, bags, broches, and shoes, are as desirable as an amazingly rare piece you find in an antique store that feels as if it was waiting for you, and the face jewellery gave that beautiful dystopian aura Alessandro always had and that we were missing so much.
"They wind their way through a mazy path of colourful shapes fed with a spasmodic search for beauty," writes Michelle about the bees, the animals that spread and multiply the beauty of flowers, but it's a sentence that accurately describes how the eighty-five looks went by the runway, leaving the space open for more flowers to grow.
