Alessandro Michele presented his collection through an experimental format that turned spectators into voyeurs. Just days after Valentino Garavani’s funeral in Rome, where the 93-year-old founder was laid to rest, Michele staged a show that felt less like a coincidence and more like an unintentional elegy to the man who built the fashion house.
| 📌 Key Facts |
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| 🎬 Collection: Valentino haute Couture Spring 2026 👤 Designer: Alessandro Michele 🕯️ Context: Presented days after Valentino Garavani’s funeral 🏛️ Venue: Tennis Club de Paris 🔭 Scenography: Kaiserpanorama installations inspired by early cinema 🎞️ References: Silent film, Art Deco, Hollywood glamour 👗 Philosophy: Couture as fantasy, free from commercial constraints 🔴 Signature Moment: Finale gown in iconic Valentino red |
The Tennis Club de Paris was reconfigured with circular wooden structures throughout the darkened space. These Kaiserpanorama installations, 19th-century precursors to modern cinema, featured eye-level peepholes through which guests could glimpse models inside brightly lit boxes. You had to resist the urge to linger on details or simply capture everything with your phone camera. The presentation demanded focus. Kirsten Dunst and Dakota Johnson were among those who peered through the portals at gowns that will likely appear on red carpets before the end of the year.
Michele began the show with a recording of Garavani himself. The Italian couturier described how his vocation was born from watching 1940s film stars like Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner on screen. He absorbed their glamour and translated it into clothes that women wanted to wear. Michele reached further back, mining the origins of celebrity culture through silent film iconography and Art Deco references.
The designer calls himself an archaeologist. He digs through eras and emerges with garments that feel lifted from specific moments yet remain untethered to any single decade. A white, bias-cut, satin slip appeared beneath an ivory, embroidered, velvet coat with a train of ostrich feathers and rhinestones. The silhouette evoked Erté illustrations brought to three-dimensional life. Another look featured a black velvet, drop-waist kimono coat with graphic, floral decorations that could have come straight from the set of Mata Hari or Paul Poiret’s atelier.
The models wore gold crowns fashioned into sunburst pleats. They stood inside their boxes and posed like objects meant for secular worship. Gold lamé goddess gowns added a gloss that felt distinctly 1980s, merging vintage Hollywood and Oscar statuettes. A white chiffon cape dusted with silver geometric motifs could have belonged to Gloria Swanson. Katharine Hepburn’s striped gown from Bringing Up Baby was on display as well.
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Classical music alternated with thumping techno as the procession continued. The format forced contemplation because there was nowhere else to look. You were trapped with the image before you until the room dimmed and another model appeared in a different box wearing something equally theatrical.
During previews, Michele noted how many designers who stepped into creative director roles last year revealed their first designs on red carpets rather than runways. He finds that revealing. He observed that the red carpet functions like a metaphysical space, removed from market demands. Designers can project fantasy there without anyone questioning its commercial viability. He compared it to the Yellow Brick Road from The Wizard of Oz – a place where imagination supersedes reality.
His Specula Mundi, Latin for “mirror of the world,” operates under a similar logic. Haute couture exists apart from the typical constraints of the fashion system. There were no trends to follow, no demographic to appeal to, and no inventory to sell through department stores. Michele could freely hop decades, pulling inspiration from the 1910s, 1940s, and 1980s.
After all the models had cycled through every Kaiser Panorama, they reappeared for a traditional runway finale. The first gown, naturally, was draped in Valentino red with a plunging neckline knotted at the navel and full batwing sleeves. The show took place amid chaotic global events and an ongoing awards season. Michele offered his audience permission to dream anyway. Perhaps that was the real tribute to Garavani – the insistence that beauty and fantasy matter, even when the world suggests otherwise.
