Valentino's FW25 collection speaks for itself

It is curious that a loquacious creative director and philosopher like Alessandro Michele did not accompany his latest FW25 collection for Valentino with even the slightest note or written line. After all, he had accustomed us to the figure of a designer who weaves as much about semiotic issues as about the clothes he presents. Yet, this latest collection, which arrived in the form of a river-like lookbook, had no message – leading us to think that Michele believed the looks speak for themselves quite well. In fact, they do: it is somehow pleasant that the designer abandoned rhetorical efforts, whose often intense sostenuto weighs down looks already overloaded with details. In this season, then, the whirlpool of baroque style has not stopped, but if we wanted to look for a note of change compared to the previous two collections by Michele, we might perhaps find, on the one hand, moments of liberating eccentricity represented by the many accessories and maxi-embroideries featuring cats; and on the other, a sharper and more subtle eye for the wearability of the products: shoes, bags, and sunglasses mainly, but also a good dose of jeans and blazers, logo t-shirts, and plant-themed prints cleverly hidden in a profusion of Victorian blouses, capes, and jackets more embroidered than those of the Sultan of Brunei.

The new collection has the feel of a statement: Michele believes in his formula with such absolute faith that it makes the formula itself credible to others. The world it evokes undoubtedly has its own allure, a type of highly syncretic romanticism in love with the past that, in the end, aligns well with the tastes of the more retro-minded vintage lovers, and which, as presented, without the mediation or framework of a narrative or paratext, rests in a bed of self-evidence that forces us to observe it without being able to derive from it any comment or angle of interpretation. In some ways, it’s a mechanism similar to that of certain Japanese art loved by the decadents and symbolists of the late 19th century because, in its two-dimensionality and decoration, it was somehow ornament and commentary on itself, enclosed in an aesthetic bubble whose clear transparency also reflects its fundamental incommunicability. At most, one can greet with some joy the flair that, regardless of the point of view one may have (new soul of a historic brand or eternal return of the same and the self-referential?), represents a break from the little felt, sometimes bloodless, sometimes dry creativity seen on today’s runways – all bowing to the idea of the everyday wardrobe, of utility, and all emulating the archetype of workwear.

And having established that Michele works in terms of expansion and accumulation rather than linear evolution, scrolling through the looks of this opulent collection, dripping with meticulous details and overflowing with preciousness, makes us wonder what to expect from Michele's debut in Haute Couture. In any case, the creative director is working on something grand – but how will he outdo the creativity of such a hyperbolic ready-to-wear collection? We remain hopefully awaiting, aware that, given today’s fashion landscape, it’s better to have an Alessandro Michele than not. However, the question remains of what the designer wants to build with CEO Venturini and the brand's colossal apparatus: a new world or a cathedral in the desert?