Double-click to edit...
A review of the Valentino Spring/Summer 2027 by Alessandro Michele
Valentino Spring/Summer 2027 Opens the Unread Wardrobe
LE MILE
Long reading tables ran beneath green lamps, surrounded by shelves in the vast 19th-century room. The Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève gave Valentino’s Spring/Summer 2027 show a setting already dense with its own rituals, which Alessandro Michele quickly disturbed with strobe lights and Troye Sivan’s “Party” playing on loop. Guests arrived carrying books of their own, which were collected at the entrance for donation after the show.
Valentino Spring Summer 2027
/ Antibiblioteca by Alessandro Michele
Valentino Spring Summer 2027
/ Antibiblioteca by Alessandro Michele at Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
Valentino Spring Summer 2027
/ Antibiblioteca by Alessandro Michele
Valentino Spring Summer 2027
/ Antibiblioteca by Alessandro Michele
He called the collection Antibiblioteca, taking its name from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s account of Umberto Eco’s personal library of some 30,000 books. Taleb was fascinated by the unread volumes and the knowledge they still contained. Michele transferred that idea to fashion, imagining clothes as carriers of lives still available to us. His notes also refer to the Japanese practice of tsundoku, the accumulation of unread books, and to Giorgio Agamben’s writing on potentiality. Across 80 looks, the runway became Michele’s own catalogue of possibilities. The opening established a silhouette around jewel-toned satin bustiers worn with knee-length skirts in crinkled crepon and floral silk dévoré. Leather entered the sequence with a harder surface, and feathered hems changed the line around the leg as the models walked. The exposed torso brought a directness to the collection. An ’80s-shaped jacket set with jewel buttons appeared over lace biker shorts, and a hot-pink strapless gown revealed a circular ruffle at the back as it turned, finished with an enormous black bow.
Double-breasted jackets were deliberately fastened off-centre, gathering fabric around the waist, while silk boxers rose high above trouser waistbands. Baseball caps printed with “Villain Teen” cut through the tailoring with the kind of peculiar humour that has followed Michele throughout his career. Jewellery became part of the silhouette, with long strands of pearls and oversized crystal pieces covering shirts or bare skin.
Valentino Spring Summer 2027
/ Antibiblioteca by Alessandro Michele
Satin columns allowed their construction to hold attention, while ruffles and rhinestones appeared elsewhere with greater theatricality. A black velvet dress plunging to the navel was covered at the neckline with gold and pearls, giving the body a strong frame without burying the dress itself. Here Michele’s instinct for decoration found a convincing scale within Valentino, a house whose founder understood glamour as something immediately visible across a room.This was Michele’s fourth ready-to-wear collection since taking over Valentino in 2024. The 80-look length occasionally blurred its focus, though the bustier silhouettes and evening dresses gave the collection a strong centre. Michele filled the library with possible lives and gave his appetite for abundance a reason to remain open-ended. The unread wardrobe, in his hands, still has plenty left on its shelves.
all images (c) Valentino Press
