Former Gucci designer Alessandro Michele has been announced as the new creative director of Maison Valentino.
He will take over the new role on 2nd April, and according to the house will be based in the “creative heart of the company” – in Rome.
Discussing his new appointment, Michele said “It’s an incredible honour for me to be welcomed at Maison Valentino. I feel 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.
“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. 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.
“My heartfelt gratitude, of course, goes to Rachid Mohamed Rachid who gave me this unique and irreplicable occasion. His trust is a gift of the soul that I will try to cherish with my work and total devotion.
“My thankfulness to Jacopo Venturini is boundless, limitless. Getting back to work with him is a marvellous dream come true. Jacopo is not only an extraordinary professional, able to combine pragmatism and strategic vision, competence and sensibility. He’s most of all a man who is able to celebrate falling in love with life every day, through his passions and his care.
“Today, 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.
“May my bow, wide open arms, speak for itself and salute in this early spring the regeneration of life and the promise of new blooming.”
Michele left his position of Creative Director at Gucci back in November 2022, nearly two years following his departure he is expected to return to the foray of fashion, with his first collection for the house of Valentino planned for the Spring/Summer 2025 shows.
