“It’s an incredible honor.” A year and a half after his farewell – in November 2022 – to Gucci, Alessandro Michele himself announced his new job. Starting from next April 2nd, he will be the new creative director of Valentino. «I feel immense joy and feel an enormous responsibility at the prospect of becoming part of a maison de couture that has the word “beauty” engraved on a collective history in which peculiar elegance, refinement and extreme grace blend together», he declares today, March 28th. To see his first creations with the Roman brand, however, we will have to wait for the catwalks of the September 2024 edition of Paris Fashion Week – writes Vogue -, where Valentino will be shown the spring summer 2025 collection. As announced by various indiscretions, Michele is was chosen as a replacement for designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, who left the house last week.
Michele continues, again to Vogue: «I am looking for the right words to express my joy, to communicate what I truly feel, the smiles that rise from the heart, the joyful gratitude that lights up the eyes, that precious moment in which destiny and beauty meet. Joy, however, is such a living thing that I am afraid of hurting it if I dare to pronounce its name.” In his new adventure, the designer will meet again with Valentino’s CEO, Jacopo Venturini: the two had worked together at Gucci. Venturini says he is «very happy and excited at the idea of returning to collaborate with Alessandro after years of working together. His talent, his creativity, his profound intelligence, always linked to a wonderful lightness, will write another chapter of the Valentino maison.” Michele is credited with many of Gucci’s recent fortunes, which went from a turnover of 3.5 billion euros in 2014 to 9.73 billion in 2022.
