Valentino’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection, titled ‘Antilibrary’, considers fashion through the idea of possibility, drawing on the concept of the personal library and the value of what remains unread (or indeed, unworn).
The collection takes its conceptual starting point from an idea discussed by writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb in “The Black Swan”, in which he describes Umberto Eco’s extensive personal library. Rather than valuing a library according to how many books its owner has read, Taleb argues that its greatest value lies in the unread volumes: the knowledge that remains to be discovered.
This idea of the ‘antilibrary’ becomes a metaphor for fashion in Valentino’s SS27 collection. Alessandro considers garments not simply according to their function or whether they will ultimately be worn, but for the possibilities they represent. Like unread books, clothes can exist as objects of potential, holding ideas, forms and ways of imagining life that extend beyond their practical use.
The concept also draws a parallel with the Japanese practice of tsundoku, in which books are acquired and allowed to accumulate without necessarily being read. Within the context of the collection, these unread books become symbols of anticipation, representing experiences, stories and ideas that remain open to discovery.
Valentino applies the same thinking to the fashion show itself, viewing it as a kind of visual antilibrary. Each garment contributes to an archive of silhouettes, forms and aesthetic possibilities, whether or not the pieces eventually become part of someone’s everyday wardrobe. Some looks may appear only briefly on the runway, while others may live on through photographs, memories or the wardrobes of those who acquire them.
The collection therefore questions the idea that fashion’s value should be measured by use alone. A garment can have significance through the emotions, images and possibilities it evokes, even when it remains unworn.
The concept of potentiality is central to this approach. Rather than treating unrealised possibilities as incomplete, ‘Antilibrary’ considers them valuable in their own right. The garments presented on the runway become a reservoir of things that might be worn, imagined or experienced, while retaining their meaning even when they are never realised.
In this sense, Valentino SS27 positions fashion as more than a response to the present. It becomes a space for imagining lives that have not yet been lived, and perhaps never will be. Like the unread books on a shelf, the clothes that remain untouched can still expand the boundaries of what is conceivable, offering not regret for what remains unrealised, but the promise of what might still come.
