Alessandro Michele Named Valentino's New Creative Director

Following swirling rumors of a contract negotiation, Alessandro Michele has officially become the new creative director at Valentino, according to Vogue Business.

The former Gucci designer will take the reins at the Rome-based fashion house on Tuesday, April 2, following in the footsteps of Pierpaolo Piccioli, who spent 25 years at Valentino’s helm. After the brand canceled its men’s and couture shows this June, Michele’s debut collection for the label will be Spring/Summer 2025, which is presently expected to be shown during September’s Paris Fashion Week.

“It’s an incredible honor,” Michele told the outlet. “I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a Maison de Couture that has the word ‘beauty’ carved on a collective story made of distinctive elegance, refinement, and extreme grace.”

In the new role, Michele will craft his first-ever couture collections. On his foray into the haute design domain, he said, “I search for words to nominate the joy, to regard it, to really convey what I feel; the smiles that kick from the chest, the bliss of gratitude that lights up the eyes, that precious moment when necessity and beauty reach out and meet. Joy, though, is such a living thing that I’m afraid to hurt it if I dare to speak its name.”

Upon joining the Maison, Michele will explore the House’s decades-spanning archives to begin building his version of the brand. “My first thought goes to this story: to the richness of its cultural and symbolic heritage, to the sense of wonder it constantly generates, to the very precious identity given with their wildest love by founding fathers, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti,” he said to Vogue. “These references always represented an essential source of inspiration for me, and I’m going to praise such influence through my own interpretation and creative vision.”

Valentino’s CEO Jacopo Venturini, who was previously Gucci’s executive vice president of merchandising and global markets, has maintained a professional relationship with Michele. “I am very happy and excited to return to work with Alessandro,” he said. “I am certain that the reinterpretation of the Maison’s couture codes and the heritage created by Mr. Valentino Garavani, combined with Alessandro’s extraordinary vision, will bring us moments of great emotion and will translate into irresistibly desirable objects.”

Michele, who worked as Gucci’s creative director for seven years before exiting the brand at the tail-end of 2022, called Venturini “an extraordinary professional, able to combine pragmatism and strategic vision, competence and sensibility.”

Stay tuned to Hypebeast for more information on Alessandro Michele’s return as Valentino’s creative director.