THE WASHINGTON POST: Valentino’s new fashion top gun Alessandro Michele dusts off grandma’s closet chic

The old aphorism has always been that a lot of cash can buy you clothes and fashion, but no amount of money can buy you style.

At Valentino, though, new top gun Alessandro Michele is waving an antique-ring-stacked finger at that idea and saying, “No, no, no”.

Maybe a fashion designer’s job isn’t to change your perception of beauty, provide clothes that reflect modern life or make clothing that complements the lives of customers.

More than the clothes, which were sumptuous, decadent and romantic, if a bit stagy, Michele’s message was that his remit at Valentino is to live his life as a model for the world, or at least the Valentino world.

He is a monk of luxury, following in the path of the luxury lords, writing his luxury messages.

“I never thought he was working,” he said of the brand’s founder, while sitting in a throne draped in white a few minutes after the show.

“He simply was living.”

On Sunday, Michele unveiled his first show for Valentino, the most anticipated of the season and a major comeback moment for a designer who abruptly left Gucci, the Kering flagship he turned into a $10 billion business, only two years ago.

Valentino was started in the 1960s by Valentino Garavani (who was too frail to attend the show but watched via FaceTime), and until this year was overseen by Pierpaolo Piccioli, beloved for his floaty clothes and jolting pairings of jewel tones.

In these — say it with me, folks — quiet luxury times, the question was whether Michele’s ideas would seem old hat, or, you know, “cool vintage hat” that rebuffs the tyranny of overpriced, simplified basics.

At Gucci, the Michele mishmash spread across more parts of the world and more decades.

At Valentino, he is much more focused (at least thus far) on the 1960s and 70s, and specifically the archives of Valentino.

At Gucci, he would reference other designers — Issey Miyake, Dapper Dan, Hollywood costume designer Adrian — often in a single look, and blend medieval history with 1980s arrogance.

The Valentino pieces, especially the men’s tailoring, women’s beaded jackets and 1960s tailored minidresses, were exquisitely made.

They looked expensive — much higher quality than the things he made at Gucci — which is rare.

So few things, even really pricey ones, look well made, so quiet luxury has made people feel like scholars for buying fancy T-shirts or the cashmere sweater that only the real experts can recognise.

Michele’s Valentino showed us what complex clothes look like when they’re constructed by virtuosic hands.

Overall, the vintage-fuelled, slightly kooky vibe reflects the spirit of young shoppers today, who love to flaunt a wacko vintage find.

(TikTok is chockablock with people brandishing thrift and vintage finds that are slightly garish but special because they look nothing like the granola at Shein or Abercrombie.)

The set, of old furnishings and statues covered in white scrims, added to the treasures-from-aristocrat-nonna’s-attic concept.

Many of his styling decisions were distracting, such as the printed white or red tights that disrupted the elegance of his dresses.

His turbans were probably too literal.

And it’s always weird to see a very young and very thin model wearing lingerie with a marabou boa.

’Twas a bit too “Pretty Baby”.

His strongest looks used unsurprising blends of colors and prints to lofty effect, like a brown paisley skirt and beaded jacket with a green obi belt and snakeskin boots.

The takeaway from Michele’s show isn’t whether he evolved from his Gucci aesthetic.

Rather, the big “new” is the idea that a designer should be a sort of high priest of lifestyle. Not lifestyle like Calvin Klein making underwear, cologne and bedsheets in the 1990s, products that touch every part of your life.

Instead, designers show you how to live and suggest that what you wear is a summation of your experiences, and your choices in literature, art, conversation.

Fashion designers and their brands, in other words, exist to show you - sell you - taste. (Maybe that’s all we have left, now that everything is so unrealistically expensive.)

That was the big message at Prada: that mix of eras and fashion concepts united solely by the taste and style of one woman (Miuccia Prada).

Michele does not have Mrs. Prada’s swagu, but he talked again and again after the show about Valentino’s life, the way he feels he is working in this man’s home.

He is not simply pulling from the man’s archives, but trying to conjure on a global stage the way this man moved through the world.

The yacht, the celebrity and intelligentsia friends, the antiques and the furnishings all added up to the worldview that made this dress or these shoes.

If we spent the past decade living to work, and the past few years quiet quitting, the aspirational life is one where our work is a way for us to bring our point of view into the world.

And if you can’t afford a $2000 handbag? Likes and attention are currency, too. “I want to teach a new generation that it’s possible to be weirdly chic,” he said, also reflecting that accessories such as lower-lip rings may not be commercial smash hits, but they are important to create mood, feeling.

This is not the same as runway shows functioning merely as styling suggestions. Designers have long relied heavily on stylists to sharpen their shows. This is the commercialization of having a personality - a beautiful life where everything you look at, consume and ponder is reflected outward in your amazing outfit. Is it craven, or awesome? In the hands of a pure and unconventional spirit like Michele, you have to hope it’s the latter.

(c) 2024 , The Washington Post