Today will see Alessandro Michele’s debut at Valentino, the most anticipated show on the fashion calendar this month. A voluminous resort collection earlier this year revealed a clever combination of the house founder Valentino Garavani’s signature femininity and Michele’s own brand of eccentric collagerie. If that was the new creative director’s preamble, what will his first chapter look like?
Before that page officially turns, we recommend you read a 1985 profile by Joan Juliet Buck that sees Garavani, a Roman emperor at the height of his powers. The story is as sumptuous as the embroidered mosaics Buck finds the couturier working on—“richer than Ravenna’s”—or the pink tulle dress that Garavani says is his first fashion memory.
While fashion’s values have changed as much as its designs since 1985, it’s a delight to read and a primer for the new ruler, Alessandro, whose showtime is in exactly three hours. |
