Valentino SS26: Michele's "Fireflies" Shine in The Darkest Hour
Alessandro Michele evokes a metaphor from Pier Paolo Pasolini, representing the resilience of hope through darkness.
Summary
- Michele’s Valentino SS26 collection, titled “Fireflies,” uses sequins and light fabrics to represent hope and resistance against darkness, inspired by Pasolini’s metaphor.
- The collection challenges traditional fashion norms by blending masculine and feminine silhouettes and using unconventional materials to express an “embodied poetry.”
Alessandro Michele‘s Valentino SS26 was *literally* a dazzling spectacle — a co-ed runway presentation threaded with gold and silver sequins, blooming florals, and silky drapery. Far from hollow glamour, the collection represented deeper sentiments from the eccentric creative director, who prefaced the show with a long note explaining the collection’s title, “Fireflies.”
Michele is known for his loud aesthetic, a bold symphony of bright colors, kitsch patterns, and ornate trims, but his words are often just as fierce. In line with his reputation for defiant expression, this season, he references Italian filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini’s metaphor of the firefly, representing “the ability to resist the darkest night” and “survive the darkness of the ruling fascism.”
He translates the bug’s “erratic luminescences bursting with life” and their “intermittent fragments of embodied poetry” into the clothes. Ornate blouses are either sheer to show glimmers of skin, patterned with cheerful prints, or covered in shining sequins. A flapper-style spaghetti strap dress was covered in chrome sequins with firefly embroidery at the waist. Elsewhere, a completely sheer gown was adorned with nothing but a golden sequin snake coiling the skirt and bodice. Men’s blazers “embodied poetry” through permanent fold marks, while at other moments, the jackets were feminized with a subtle hourglass shape.
Menswear codes are subverted throughout, trading subtlety for expression, and structured austerity for organic fluidity. Towards the end of the presentation, a suit jacket is completely covered in the golden scales, dappled with orb-like shapes, and worn with a black floral lace vest. Elsewhere, a mint long-sleeve shirt is overwhelmed by a draped neckline, reminiscent of a Greek marble. The oxidized copper hue and monumental drapery could easily remind one of New York’s Lady Liberty, standing tall with her torch illuminating the dark.
See the gallery above for a full look at the Valentino SS26 runway show and stay tuned to Hypebeast for the latest Paris Fashion Week insights.
