ALESSANDRO MICHELE IS VALENTINO’S NEW CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Perhaps The New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman said it best this morning when she wrote, “The song has stopped in at least one game of fashion musical chairs.” The big designer houses have been having a major shuffle of creative directors in the last few months, and when Pierpaolo Piccioli left Valentino last week, the fashion cognoscenti were awash in speculation about who would fill the late designer Valentino Garavani’s shoes. 

The house confirmed today that Maison Valentino has appointed Alessandro Michele as  its new creative director, stating, “This appointment marks the beginning of a new journey to continue shining unique values of the brand, its heritage and couture codes in the world through Alessandro Michele’s unique perspective and wealth of experience.” 

Michele, a native of Rome, was the creative director at Gucci for twenty years (where Tom Ford hired him), leaving there in 2022. He started his career with design stints at Les Copains, and Fendi (under Karl Lagerfeld’s tenure). 

Photo, above, by Fabio Lovino from Valentino’s X account.