Gods & Monsters. Valentino AW25

March 12, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

The Paris shows either offered a new, radical take on mundane realism (the “give us nothing” energy) or a walk down the nostalgia lane. The 1980s are everywhere you look, from the shoulders to the brisky patterns and colors. But this season the presence of the 1980s aren’t giving the confidence of a “power look” – but rather, the crippling feeling of recession, stock market crash and melancholia.

Some designers know what to do with the past and are capable of communicating something about the contemporary times with all that vintage affection. Alessandro Michele is one of them. He believes that in order to understand the present and have an idea of the future, you must know the past. His sophomore Valentino collection might look clunky and unedited at first, but when you a look at it again, you see how telling it is about what’s the state of fashion is in 2025. Overstimulation. Oversaturation. Overpoweredness. Michele’s models of all ages walked to the tune of Lana Del Rey’s “Gods & Monsters” in their embellished dresses, so-tacky-it’s-good satins and genderless lace, certainly not knowing where they are headed to. The vibe was kind of apocalyptic, but since we’re still alive, why not be all glammed up? One of the closing looks – a stuffy, fur-trimmed cardigan worn over a black velvet dress and styled with pony-hair boots tied with a bow – looked so odd and so out of place you just can’t help but feel… intrigued.

While doing market research in Paris I also noticed how high quality Michele’s Valentino really is. These clothes are done with such care and precision that they will look as good as now in 20, 30 years. Just like vintage that we love and wear today, being decades old. The quality of clothes used to be better in the past, and Michele learns a lesson from that. The designer’s autumn-winter 2025 collection stuns with craftsmanship too – even if it’s sometimes so layered up you can barely see it.

ED’s DISPATCH:

Valentino Garavani Polka-dot Silk Head Scarf

Valentino Garavani Lace-trimmed Ruffled Polka-dot Silk-chiffon Blouse

Valentino Garavani Polka-dot Silk-crepe Wide-leg Pants

Valentino Garavani Bow-embellished Polka-dot Silk-shantung Jacket

Valentino Garavani Bowow 45 Bow-embellished Leather Pumps

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Costume. Valentino SS25 Couture

January 31, 2025 | Design & Culture by Ed

Let’s be honest: this haute couture season was brief and left you feeling hungry. Maybe it wasn’t a famine for beauty, as Andre Leon Talley liked to say. There was way too much beauty – of the conventional kind. Hundreds of metres of tulles, thousands of hours of handwork, millions of digital impressions. But to me, this couture signalled one thing: it’s a growingly archaic commodity. Gone are the days when Raf Simons at Dior presented absolutely contemporary-looking vision of eveningwear. Or Karl Lagerfeld showing couture sneakers at Chanel. This season painfully missed true fashion moments. There was absolutely nothing close to a spectacle like THAT last John Galliano collection for Maison Margiela. Demna shows couture for Balenciaga only once a year, in July, but I really wished he saved this season. In the meantime he wore a T-shirt while being awarded with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. And a plastic bag to Alessandro Michele’s debut Valentino couture show. I feel him.

Speaking of that debut, it was a brief moment of high this season, but as Angelo Flaccavento very rightly observed, this was a parade of great, convincing costumes, but not that great clothes. In the end, haute couture is a form of very precious, very costly applied art that’s being worn – at least once in its lifetime.

Michele really showcased all the possibilities of the Valentino artisan savoir-faire. To such extremes it felt dizzying (as the show’s title, “Vertigineux”, suggests), even nauseous. Huge ball-dresses dipped in embroideries and embellishments, meaty lace, massive crinolines, sumptuous excess all over: this certainly could be a separate costume department for a Fellini film. Unfortunately, as it’s the case with costumes, they wear the wearer. This isn’t very couture.

So, if Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s Bronwyn Newport ever wears anything straight from that runway, Britani Bateman has full right to question it as costume.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Beauty Is Back. Valentino Pre-Fall 2025

December 15, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

As some of you might remember, at first I was very on fence with Alessandro Michele’s debut take at Valentino. It just felt very archaic to me at the time. But something clicked for me the moment Donald Trump won the elections in the U.S. (here’s the post on that). I suddenly realized I need escapism. A sweet, decadent, indulgent escapism – exactly what Michele is known for through his unhinged vision he channeled at Gucci (with Gucci’s ready-to-wear limits) and now at Valentino, where he’s got the ultimate couture know-how.

This week, Alessandro’s third act for the Rome-based brand got released, and it’s his best one so far. I really liked how Lyas described it as “punk”. It really is punk whilst pretty much everything in fashion right now is pure conservatism, from bland “quiet luxury” minimalism to “office-core” – on the way of trad-wives and white-cube ad campaigns. Michele’s vision couldn’t be further from all that. It’s full-throttle boheme, striking with artisanship and well-traveled, idiosyncratic approach to styling.

His Valentino is of course very vintage-y. Now you might say I’m a hypocrite – I just shaded the Anthony Vaccarello’s nostalgic Saint Laurent collection. But here’s the thing: while you can trace Vaccarello’s vintage-obsession to exact, well-documented references, in case of Michele it’s totally not the case. Alessandro’s history-mania has echoes of Diana Vreeland’s “the eye has to travel” way of thinking. He takes from the past, remixes it, and recontextualizes it. Plus, it’s really striking to see how he not only is inspired with 1970s and 80s fashion (and Valentino Garavani’s work from that period), but also does his best to measure up to the craftsmanship standards of these times.

The pre-fall 2025 collection is transfixingly beautiful and dreamily opulent. The silk dresses are made out of patches of prints, from robust paisley to wallpaper florals; the lace is so intricate it looks like porcelain, and the lush, dense embroideries on velvet jackets and big-sleeved, peasant blouses is beyond. And I went completely crazy for the bags, especially the fringed, knitted pouches. Bode looks kind of poor next to these works of art. New Valentino is heirloom-status fashion. If this is what the label’s ready-to-wear looks like in Alessandro’s hands, I can’t wait for his first haute couture outing.

Unabashed beauty is so back, baby!

Here are some of my favorite pieces from new Valentino…

ED’s SELECTION:

Valentino Resin and Crystal Butterfly Brooch

Valentino Embellished Pointelle-knit Cotton Socks

Valentino Polka Dot Ruffle Organza Mini Dress

Valentino Polka-dot Silk Head Scarf

Valentino Twill Paisley Fringe Scarf

Valentino Nellcote Suede Fringe Shoulder Bag

Valentino Garavani Après L’hiver Shearling-trimmed Metallic Brocade Coat

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Nostalgia. Valentino SS25

October 4, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

I found Alessandro Michele‘s runway debut for Valentino a disappointment on many levels. I don’t get the reasoning behind sending down the runway over 80 looks that are so terrifically archaic and deadly retro. Yes, it’s Michele’s prime aesthetic, but it can easily (and quickly) get exhausting. Near the end of his tenure at Gucci, you literally felt an overdose of nostalgia. I really hoped Michele would channel his quirk for the past it in a contemporary-looking way. Let’s remember his Gucci debut was an unexpected gender revolution. But at Valentino, he totally missed the opportunity to show a breakthrough. Also, what’s the actual point of remaking Valentino Garavani’s 1970s and 80s garments in 2024? First, there’s a vintage market for that. Second, it looks absolutely stuffy and dusty without even a drop of irony in the styling.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Deja Vu. Valentino Resort 2025

June 18, 2024 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s a new dawn for Valentino. Gone are the days of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s minimalist sensibility and sharpness of cut. Alessandro Michele’s “surprise” debut collection for resort 2025 is an unabashed return to Valentino Garavani’s 1960s and 1970s opulence and over-the-topness. Is this nostalgia something people really want in 2024? Many wrongfully described the collection as “so Gucci”. The deja vu feeling is valid, but rather it’s “so Alessandro Michele”. But let’s be honest, this line-up could easily pass as any of Michele’s previous collections for the other Italian brand, and you’re really not the only one constantly mistyping Gucci instead of Valentino. More than 170 looks, none really memorable or distinct, is either a result of Michele’s prolificness or his overt maximalism – something I thought he would rethink and refine during his hiatus. When the designer arrived at Gucci, his debut collection – contrived at light speed pace – was a revolution-in-the-making and it shifted the way people dress for seasons ahead. His Valentino debut lacks that radicalness, and feels like a missed opportunity in making a strong point. The dense, thick retromania of this collection makes one feel simply tired.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!