*The Vain Campaign
The Room Holds Her, The Bag Remains
written Monica de Luna
Light falls through the room in fragments. Two women move through it slowly, inhabiting space like breath. The Valentino Garavani Vain Bag is there, quiet and near, suspended in the atmosphere between them.
This is the second chapter of a visual journey led by Creative Director Alessandro Michele. The campaign, photographed by Sharna Osborne, unfolds through the texture of film grain, softened edges, and an emotional stillness that settles across every surface.
(c) VALENTINO
Vain Campaign
(c) VALENTINO
Vain Campaign
Each image holds time gently. Nothing presses forward. Isabella and Vera sit and reach without performance. The gestures are spare, deliberate, present. A hand resting on leather. A glance that lingers. A bag placed near the skin, absorbing the moment around it.
The Vain Bag enters this sequence with composure. No introduction, no demand. It exists as part of the room, part of the ritual. Surfaces tell the story—calfskin, glossy finishes, velvet, raffia, florals rendered in embroidery. Shape follows material. The new top-handle silhouette, the oval vanity box, the updated shoulder bags with prints from the ready-to-wear collection. The new Soft Vain clutch. Each element appears with continuity, held in the same tonal frequency.
The bag never moves to the center. It remains constant—alongside a figure, against fabric, beside a pillow. Always within reach. Always aligned with the rhythm of the body.
There is no staging but only observation. Osborne’s lens hovers with intimacy. Grain dissolves outlines. Skin meets shadow, and the bag rests in this gentle complexity.
Within the campaign, silence shapes the narrative. There are no declarations. The feeling builds through repetition and through the choice to let a moment hold.
Every surface speaks. The choice of beading, the way karung skin traces the handle, the way embroidered lines thread memory into form. The Vain Bag holds these decisions with clarity.
(c) VALENTINO
Vain Campaign
(c) VALENTINO
Vain Campaign
Nothing separates the object from the setting. The room, the body, the bag—each functions within the same visual sentence. There are no events here. No climax as well. Just a mood that accumulates. Time folds. Every frame brings a shift in posture, a shift in light, a continuation.
Alessandro Michele expands the vocabulary of Maison Valentino through rhythm and emotion. Each gesture within the campaign exists with intention. Every visual element supports the same atmosphere. There is no need for introduction. The women are already there. The bag is already held. The story is already in motion.
This collection of images does not guide. It allows. It creates the condition for presence. Within this setting, the Vain Bag is not defined by function. It becomes a participant in a private world. Its presence carries weight through detail—how it is made, where it is placed, what it reflects. The softness in the photographs is deliberate. Light moves through grain and color like thought. Osborne captures more than appearance. She gives space to texture and to the intimacy that unfolds when nothing is forced.
Each version of the bag exists within this visual tone. Whether resting in velvet or opening from a curved lid, the design remains grounded in its own material language. There is consistency without repetition. No element of the campaign moves toward resolution. Instead everything continues, open-ended. The gaze is held, not answered. The story lingers.
The Valentino Garavani Vain Bag campaign invites observation. Just attention. Within the codes of Valentino, this moment adds another layer. A new gesture, a pause, a softness drawn from craft. Everything remains close to the skin. Nothing speaks louder than it must. Nothing steps forward. Every element stays within reach.
The result is a composition of presence. A study in proximity, shaped by light, held by surface, made visible through rhythm. The Vain Bag becomes part of that rhythm. Not as symbol. Not as metaphor. But as presence.
And presence remains.