Valentino names Alessandro Michele as its new creative director

Alessandro MichelePhotography Taylor Hill/FilmMagic via Getty Images

Valentino has unveiled Alessandro Michele as its new creative director, succeeding Pierpaolo Piccioli at the helm of the luxury fashion house. Michele, renowned for his transformative tenure at Gucci and celebrated by icons like Harry Styles, steps into his new role following his departure from Gucci in November 2022. This move concludes widespread speculation within the fashion industry regarding Michele’s next chapter.

The designer said of his new role at the Rome-based brand: “It’s an incredible honour. I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a maison de couture that has the word ‘beauty’ carved on a collective story made of distinctive elegance, refinement and extreme grace.”

Under Michele, Gucci’s revenues almost tripled. But his tenure wasn’t without controversy. Gucci was embroiled in a race row in 2019, after which a polo neck that critics said resembled blackface was pulled from sale. In the same year, a model staged a mental health protest during the brand’s Milan fashion week show. Wearing a high fashion take on a straitjacket, a model held up their hands, on which the words “mental health is not fashion” were written.

Michele will succeed Pierpaolo Piccioli, the much-loved industry figure, who stepped down from Valentino last week after more than two decades at the brand.

He will start his new job at Valentino’s HQ, near the Spanish Steps, next week. His debut collection for the house will reportedly be at Paris fashion week in September.

“Fashion is a magical thing, because the power of what we put on our bodies to go out in the world is what makes it mysterious,” he told the Guardian in 2022. “Without the life we live in them, clothes are just fabric.”

Alessandro MichelePhotography Taylor Hill/FilmMagic via Getty Images

Though it’s been less than a week since Valentino announced veteran designer Pierpaolo Piccioli was leaving the brand, the sands of fashion time have already tumbled on. Rumours of Piccioli’s successor have been swirling for the last couple of days, but in a statement released today, the Italian label confirmed that Alessandro Michele is the new creative director of Valentino.

In the statement released to Vogue Business, Michele said that his appointment is “an incredible honour,” adding, “I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a Maison de Couture that has the word ‘beauty’ carved on a collective story made of distinctive elegance, refinement, and extreme grace.”

Michele also took to Instagram after the announcement, writing a heartfelt letter about his new position. “My first thought goes to this story: to the richness of its cultural and symbolic heritage, to the sense of wonder that it constantly generates, to the very precious identity given with their wildest love by founding fathers, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti. These references always represented an essential source of inspiration for me, and I’m going to praise such influence through my own interpretation and creative vision.”

Valentino CEO Jacopo Venturini – who Michele previously worked with at Gucci when Venturini was vice president of merchandising and global markets – echoed these sentiments. “I am very happy and excited to return to work with Alessandro. I am certain that the reinterpretation of the Maison’s couture codes and the heritage created by Mr Valentino Garavani, combined with Alessandro’s extraordinary vision, will bring us moments of great emotion and will translate into irresistibly desirable objects.”

Those who’ve been keeping a close eye on things won’t be too surprised by Michele’s appointment, as WWD reported on Monday [March 25] that the designer was undergoing contract negotiations with the house. The industry mag also pointed out that Rachid Mohamed Rachid, CEO of Valentino parent company Mayhoola, wanted Michele to head up the newly revitalised Walter Albini brand in 2023, but Michele declined.

Michele’s last high-profile appointment was, of course, at Gucci, where he was appointed interim creative director in January 2015 after Frida Giannini’s departure. Famously, Michele only had a week to rework Giannini’s AW15 collection, and just two days later was invited to take the position permanently due to the success of his vision. Prior to this, Michele had been Giannini’s design deputy at Gucci since 2011, and before then was appointed senior designer of leather goods from 2006. Before working at Gucci, Michele graduated from the Accademia di Costume e di Moda in Rome and had worked under Silvia Venturini Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi.