Alessandro Michele named creative director of Valentino

It won’t have dragged on. Valentino announced on Thursday March 28 the appointment of Alessandro Michele as creative director of the brand. A position which remained vacant for only a few days: his predecessor, Pierpaolo Piccioli, left his position on March 22, after twenty-five years spent in the Italian house, including eight years as artistic director.

The return of Alessandro Michele, 51, to the forefront of the fashion scene should undoubtedly delight his many fans, he who managed to re-enchant the identity of Gucci during his seven years as artistic director, between 2015 and 2022 With the Roman at the helm, Gucci had indeed positioned as one of the most desirable brands from the moment.

His baroque, romantic and grandiloquent universe was articulated around spectacular fashion shows: we remember the models who, for the fall-winter 2018-2019 collection, paraded with a version of their silicone head under their arm, or even the season spring-summer 2023, when sixty-eight pairs of identically dressed twins disoriented the assembly.

A graduate of the Academy of Costume and Fashion in Rome, Alessandro Michele – who worked at Fendi in the accessories department – developed a silhouette at Gucci marked by inspired pieces seventies, with long, vaporous dresses in floral prints, pussy-bow blouses and even velvet suits. In 2021, he signed a collection in collaboration with Demna, from the house of Balenciaga (also owned by Kering), all in diverted logos and strong prints. His vision, radically different from the previous Gucci focused on the femme fatale and sexy, imposed itself without transition.

Thus, Alessandro Michele had consolidated Gucci’s place as the most important brand of the Kering group: its annual sales had increased from 3.5 billion euros in 2015 to 6.2 billion euros in 2017, then to 9.73 billion euros in 2021. That year, Gucci alone represented more than half of Kering’s turnover.

First collection in September, in Paris

Despite these good results, the brand and the designer separated at the end of 2022, against a backdrop of artistic and commercial differences. The Covid-19 crisis has not only slowed down luxury activity, but also given rise to new desires and trends: more practical, comfortable and functional fashion, discreet luxury. An aesthetic far from Michele’s universe.

Since his departure, the rumor machine had continued to run wild and suggest his imminent arrival as soon as a place was vacant: at McQueen, Moschino, Walter Albini… Or at Fendi and Bulgari (LVMH), established houses in Rome, where Michele lives. However, it is at Valentino that he will present his next collection, in September, in Paris, for the spring-summer 2025 season.

Since 2012, Valentino has been majority owned by Mayhoola, an investment fund of Qatar’s ruling family, the Al Thani. In July 2023, Kering took a 30% stake, with an option allowing it to acquire 100% of the brand no later than 2028. Alessandro Michele therefore returns to the fold of Kering, despite their stormy separation in 2022 .

François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of Kering, expressed his satisfaction at finding the designer in a press release: “ I am delighted that Alessandro has been appointed to the creative direction of Valentino and I am convinced that, thanks to his creativity, his culture and his multiple talents, he will be able to brilliantly interpret the unique heritage of this magnificent house and make it shine. . »

The exercise of haute couture

This announcement comes in a delicate context for Kering: on March 19, François-Henri Pinault warned that the group’s turnover was expected to fall by 10% in the first quarter of 2024 following a drop in “nearly 20%” of Gucci sales over the period. The next day, the French group’s stock lost nearly 14% of its value on the Paris Stock Exchange.

For her part, Michele expressed her “immense joy and the great responsibility of joining a fashion house that has engraved the word “beauty” in a collective history, made of distinctive elegance, refinement and extreme grace ». Indeed, the Roman will be able to confront the exercise of haute couture for the first time, Valentino being a guest member of the Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion, in Paris, since 1989.

In addition, he will be responsible for women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, a very broad field of action which corresponds to his vision of fashion: during the time of Gucci, he had profoundly transformed the brand, both in terms of the aesthetics of clothing as well as boutiques or communication. To the point that Gucci’s DNA was erased behind Michele’s. In a luxury sector in crisis, few houses today are ready to give such freedom to an artistic director, with the risks that this entails. Except Kering, obviously.