Step into Alessandro Michele’s Valentino Fall/Winter 2025–2026 world, a fever dream of red-lit bathrooms, existential duality, and theatrical vogue that transcends mere design. This is not just fashion. It is a meta-theatre, a whisper of vulnerability in a paradoxical public space, and a bold recalibration of Valentino’s soul.
Ice meets fire at the heart of this collection. Michele transformed intimacy into performance, staging models in a Rosso Valentino–tinted, gender-neutral restroom, a Lynchian stage drenched in surreal red light. The show became a destabilizing voyage into what lies between private and performative, yielding an unsettling yet magnetizing display.
This was Michele’s second ready-to-wear show for Valentino, and he seized it as a crucible to reforge the Maison’s storied legacy, melding the flamboyant warmth of archive codes with the urgent rhythm of now.
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VALENTINO Fall Winter 2025
Here, intimacy is both armor and exhibition. Many described it as a surrealist “never-ending performance,” a public toilet as a neutral stage where inside and outside blur. Others saw it through a darker lens, likening the experience to some grotesque horror manifesto, part psychological rupture, part academic migraine.
But beneath the shock lies a familiar beat. Michele’s maximalist magpie sensibility, where lavish layering and signature accessories speak not of excess, but of identity reassembled, came alive in every look. And it’s in this creative tension where the collection shines: an unsettling backdrop of institutional coldness colliding with flamboyant, richly layered personal expression.
Beyond the aesthetics, the spectacle extended into culture. The runway was a drama in itself, complete with a celebrity front row—Chappell Roan, Jared Leto, Barry Keoghan, charging the stage with star power and modern mythos.
Michele’s rapid-fire collaborations amplified the scene. A vintage-inspired tie-up with Vans unveiled sneakers that honored their skate-rooted past, lime green and black checkerboard, “I Love My Vans” prints, counterbalanced the couture with street-tinged playfulness. Meanwhile, whispers of luxury fashion's next obsession: the Valentino Panthea bag. Poised to drop in fall 2025, its pre-release buzz is palpable. Jenna Ortega, Rihanna, Bella Hadid, and Anne Hathaway have already been seen carrying it. It’s not just style; it’s cultural currency.
