What’s going on at Valentino? Revenue falls and debts pile up

How many things can go wrong in a year for a luxury Maison? Just ask Valentino, which over the past 12 months has witnessed the death of its founder, rumors about discontent at the top over the creative direction, a new CEO announced following widespread speculation about burnout on the part of the previous chief executive, and, to top it all off, a sharp decline in sales. According to financial documents reviewed by Reuters, Valentino's financial situation deteriorated further over the course of 2025. The Roman Maison closed the year with revenues of €1.12 billion, a 15% decline compared to the previous year, while operating profit swung from a gain of €31 million recorded in 2024 to a loss of €103 million, and net debt reached €1.13 billion under IFRS 16 criteria, up from €1.08 billion the previous year.

The breakdown of Valentino's sales

The figures paint a picture of a particularly challenging period for the Maison, which continues to feel the effects of the global luxury slowdown, as well as the difficulties faced by much of the industry in navigating a period of creative and managerial transition. According to official reports, the sales decline affected all geographic regions, with particularly sharp contractions in Japan and Asia-Pacific — markets that in recent years had been among the primary growth engines for the sector.

Fashion jewellery and fragrances, on the other hand, proved more resilient, while leather goods and footwear posted weaker results. Women's ready-to-wear, historically central to the Maison's identity, also saw its share of overall revenues shrink — a sign of demand that remains fragile, particularly in direct retail.

Is Alessandro Michele the problem?

Nearly two years after his arrival, the question that many industry observers keep asking is unavoidable. Is Alessandro Michele really to blame? For now the numbers don't seem to be working in his favor, but placing the Maison's difficulties entirely at his door would risk being an oversimplification. The luxury slowdown has hit almost every major group in the sector, and transforming a brand with such a well-defined identity inevitably takes time.

And yet it is equally true that Michele's tenure has yet to produce the commercial returns many had expected. Last year, when Riccardo Bellini was announced as the new CEO, Mayhoola and Kering publicly reaffirmed their confidence in the creative direction, despite early rumors of a degree of internal discontent and doubts surrounding the reception of the collections. Nearly twelve months on, however, results continue to disappoint and the brand finds itself forced to contend with an increasingly precarious financial situation.

In the meantime, something appears to have shifted in the designer's own work. While the early collections seemed to transplant almost wholesale the aesthetic universe he had built at Gucci into Valentino, the most recent shows have demonstrated a search for greater balance between Michele's visual language and the Maison's historic codes. The return to prominence of hero products such as the Rockstud and a renewed focus on the brand's most recognizable accessories suggest an attempt to rebuild a dialogue with a clientele that for nearly twenty years had come to associate Valentino with a very different aesthetic world.