Valentino was the hottest ticket of this Paris fashion week, and the show had a sense of occasion to match. A vast floor was laid with smashed mirror tiles, glittering like a ballroom after an earthquake. Five hundred armchairs and a smattering of glowing lamps lay beneath a shroud of white sheets, as if a grand house had been locked up for a long winter.
The house of Valentino was shaking off the cobwebs for a new era and hitting the dancefloor. This was the return to fashion's top table of Alessandro Michele, one of fashion's biggest characters, a maverick in a baseball cap and pearls, a designer who quotes Heidegger and goes on holiday with Harry Styles. View image in fullscreen A model walks the Valentino runway in Paris.
Photograph: Stéphane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images Michele made his name leading Gucci to glory, tripling annual revenues there to $10bn (£7.5bn) during his tenure and making it the most exciting brand in fashion for five years. Valentino and Gucci have long vied for bragging rights in Italian fashion, so Michele's signing at Valentino not only brings his main character energy back to the centre of fashion, but turns up the heat on that rivalry.
In non-fashion terms, if Jürgen Klopp were to take over at Manchester United, this Valentino show would be the equivalent of his first game at Old Trafford. The kooky, hippy-bearded Michele is an intriguing choice for this house. Its founder, Valentino Garavani, who exited the business 16 years ago at the ag.
