VALENTINO GARAVANI
*Craft, Code and the Curious Case of DeVain
written ALBAN E. SMAJLI
Valentino Garavani DeVain appears in the digital ether with a calm, almost ceremonial presence, occupying that peculiar zone where craft speaks to code and the instinct of the atelier leans toward the logic of algorithms.
A quiet meeting unfolds between centuries of handwork and the cool hum of computational imagination. The maison’s dedication to gesture, material and emotional precision finds itself mirrored by an AI engine that renders its own forms of ornament and atmosphere, a pairing that feels unexpectedly harmonious and gently provocative, as if couture and circuitry were testing the edges of each other’s worlds without losing their sense of poise.
Maison Valentino presents DeVain as the new protagonist in a sprawling visual experiment, inviting five artists to take the bag far from the usual marble floors and closer to the evolving frontier where images appear before they exist. In a cultural landscape that worships immediacy, this series arrives as an ode to crafted illusion, stretching the definition of what creative authorship can become when imagination merges with machine logic.
Thomas Albdorf opens the procession. In his mirrored chambers the bag performs a gentle act of multiplication, slipping between reflection and refraction with the calm confidence of an object aware of its own charisma. His studio becomes a small observatory where materials converse with their own silhouettes and symmetry grows its own contemplative pulse.
Enter The Void descends deeper, their world resembles a dream rescued from a half-remembered video game and dipped in an extraterrestrial ocean. Fishes drift between cacti, hotel chandeliers rise from dunes and the bag glows like a passerby who has wandered into someone else’s subconscious. This is surrealism with the autofill function humming quietly underneath, the kind that feels familiar and feverish at the same time.
Paul Octavious
still from the film below
Paul Octavious transports DeVain into the long corridors of art history. Sixteenth-century still lifes breathe again, except this time they blink, shift and fold into layered animations. The bag perches among fruits and goblets like a visiting character who has slipped through a tear in a tapestry. Octavious choreographs a conversation between centuries without asking for permission, giving classical composition a sly digital pulse.
Tina Tona finishes the first chapter by exploding the visual field entirely. Her collages vibrate with color and hand-cut energy, weaving fragments of memory, culture and playful rebellion. The bag slips between viewpoints, blooming into countless versions of itself. Tona’s world has texture, movement and a joyful refusal to stay still.
Albert Planella approaches the bag as if it were an apparition. Here DeVain becomes mutable and cinematic, drifting between clarity and haze with a rhythm that feels borrowed from dreams. His images hold their breath while shifting into new states of being, as if the bag were quietly considering who it wants to become next.
For a house that reveres human craftsmanship, this digital series introduces a new tension. Energy-hungry algorithms sit beside centuries of artisanal knowledge. The contrast generates friction, and the friction generates light. The visuals shimmer with a strange kind of beauty, born from human impulse and computational curiosity. DeVain emerges from the experiment slightly transformed, carrying the patina of a bag that has travelled through mirrors, deserts, dreams, archives, memories and machine logic. The result feels like a quiet promise that creativity, in all its evolving shapes, still belongs to those who dare to stretch the image until it reveals something unexpected.
note
The video and image works in this project were created by five participating artists, with the AI-generated visuals produced by Enter The Void, Paul Octavious and Albert Planella. All imagery by Enter The Void was created with the informed consent of the portrayed models and all participating talents.