ROME – It’s hard to believe it’s been only a year since Alessandro Michele’s first fashion show as creative director of Valentino. The changes within the company and outside in the industry — and not only — have been unfolding at breakneck speed.

The debuts of an unprecedented number of designers at brands from Dior to Chanel and Versace have been swirling around Michele and the house of Valentino is now being led by a new chief executive officer, Riccardo Bellini, who succeeded Jacopo Venturini in August.

As Kering and Valentino restructure, the current ownership of the couture house, controlled by Mayhoola, will not change before 2028 at the earliest —  an amendment to their shareholders’ agreement, inked at the time of Kering’s acquisition of a stake in Valentino in 2023. Kering has also welcomed a new CEO, Luca de Meo, as François-Henri Pinault passes the torch to the Italian executive maintaining the role of chairman, and Francesca Bellettini has succeeded Stefano Cantino as CEO of Gucci, the brand Michele exited in 2022, now designed by Demna.

Michele is aware of the pressure placed on him to help boost Valentino’s business, which reported 2024 revenues of 1.31 billion euros, a 3 percent dip compared with 2023. During a candid interview at Valentino’s storied headquarters near the Spanish Steps, the designer acknowledged the demands of the market, the comments on his work so far, the haters — digital and not — and explained how he keeps all the white noise at bay to focus on fashion, his passion of a lifetime.

Rumors about his potential exit have been swirling for some time and, during an exclusive interview, Michele attributed this to the fact that “people like to gossip. Fashion has become pop, but the bar of the  conversation has been tragically lowered.”

Turnarounds and financial expectations must be met in one season, and he compared the ongoing chatter to that surrounding actors and their love lives.

“It’s not easy to do our job in such a moment because everything is so incredibly fast around us. Financials have accelerated everything. Of course, fashion was never disconnected from business but now the economics are 10 times more important, and results must be immediate and astonishing,” said Michele. He admitted that given his track record at Gucci,  “when you are linked to a record economic achievement, life is more complicated and the same success is expected of you.”

Being “centered” helps to focus on his own life as well as his profession. “It’s important to try and perform with authenticity and sincerity through this slalom of outside factors that no doubt exist, but I am a professional and I learned  the hard way to find balance. For a younger designer it’s more complicated, there are many demands, and it’s all become very complex. A creative director is now involved in so many different aspects compared to the past.”

In the late Renaissance building on Piazza Mignanelli near the Spanish Steps, Valentino’s storied headquarters, exquisitely decorated and frescoed, Michele has added his own unmistakable touch to his office, which is a reductive term, given the expansive space — more of a salon — with huge windows looking down on the square.

Michele, his long black hair braided under a baseball cap, wearing denim pants and a cream T-shirt with Miranda July written on the front and one of his beloved cameo necklaces, is a self-confessed “collector of objects, a hoarder,” and personalized the room with a giant Labubu — a gift, he said — 19th century chinoiserie pieces,  beautiful Neo-classic Capodimonte sculptures and a large painting by Bernardo Siciliano, “an allegory of adolescence and summer idleness.” A supersized Le Chat de la Maison stands by the window — a whimsical touch that reflects Michele’s attitude. “This is my playroom,” he said with a smile.

His personal life, his partner and friends, his books and collections help him to be “grounded,” but his passion for fashion is what drives him. “We chose one another many years ago, but I exist as an individual, as a person and I understand and contextualize the scene around me, which is tempestuous.”

He addressed how the persona that filters through social media, which is “a propeller of different fantasies,” is different from his real self.  He views social media as “returning to an antique kind of information, made of legends, mythological tales and oral transmission by a single person that did not have a title. You are a journalist and your duty as a professional is important, to write as a historian, based on ethics and experience. Now, anyone can write whatever they want.”

Asked about those critics who have negatively compared his designs to those of Valentino Garavani, Michele shrugged. “I love them anyways, my job is public and people who have an opinion should express it, it’s a form of freedom,  which is primary in this historical moment. What I feel that is missing is  the respect that is necessary in a conversation; we have become dangerously aggressive, arrogant and overbearing. I would like for the language to become less denigratory and for the world to return to being gentle. There can be a healthy dialogue even with different points of view, but grace and kindness are lost.”

Michele said he would be “inept” if he simply “copied what has been done in the past” by Garavani. “My job is to mediate and I challenge myself.” Aware that staging his last fashion show in a public bathroom “is a metaphor that someone did not appreciate,” he defended his choice. “It’s still poetry,” he said, praising the 2023 film “Perfect Days” directed by Wim Wenders and highlighting Tokyo’s public toilets. “I find the tale of intimacy very interesting — as when we find ourselves all decked out in the bathroom of the Met Gala, for example.”

At Gucci, Michele embraced cinematography, codirecting a series of films with Gus Van Sant, and this “need to build tales and not only show clothes” continues to inform his vision. “I have a theatrical soul and it’s a language that in some cases is disturbing in the established fashion language. Those who came before me did an extraordinary job, each with their own idea of beauty but I feel I should be allowed to build a bridge for the brand  onto the future and this takes time.”

While continuining to live in Rome, his hometown, Michele said he very much likes Paris, where the brand will once again show the spring 2026 collection at the Institut du Monde Arabe  (Arab World Institute) on Sunday. “Paris is Rome’s pretty granddaughter, there’s always been such interesting cross-pollination between the two cities,” he said.

While mum on details about the collection, he said he felt “the need to investigate a topic very dear to the founder — beauty — through a recovery operation.  Even though I have been accused throughout my career of opposing beauty, I think beauty is like a big embrace, recognizing diversity, never rejecting, and I would like to examine the meaning of beauty in depth, in the current times. I adore working here, maintaining the poetry and beauty that surrounds me here as a value and point of reference, a sort of romanticism filtered through my eyes.”  

Addressing the critics who contend he has been “Guccifying” Valentino with his own distinctive style, Michele said there was something to say about consistency, praising Giorgio Armani’s a few days after the designer’s death. “In a world where we need to change at all costs, remaining consistent is a sign of modernity,” he said. He praised Armani’s “dedication and tenacity,” his professional “longevity” and how he “decided on his own all his life and he never stopped believing in what he was doing.”  

Asked if he ever thought of launching his own brand, Michele said he sees himself as “part of a theater company. There is my name on the billboard but I work for that show, I bring my know-how, and my own point of view, which can help see things in a different light. I’m like a frontman of a band, but I never thought of being a soloist, I would miss the band. I grew up professionally as part of very big brands, and I like it this way. I like to work with the team, I’m old school, I come here, start early and leave late and often I continue to work from home where I created a studio.”

On a desk lay Michele’s Nellcôte bag, one of the designer’s most recent and successful designs. The brand has been upping the ante on the accessories category, and Michele once again said “it takes time to build [the segment]. Maria Grazia [Chiuri] and Pierpaolo [Piccioli] did an extraordinary job with the Rockstuds. We all came from the Fendi school.”  He confessed an “obsession” for bags, which he collects “from all different brands.”

Asked if he is thinking of expanding the brand’s product range, he was cautious. “Valentino has a different nature and vocation from Gucci, which was more about branding, but jewelry is something I think that would have a home here.”

The designer sees couture as the foundation and fil rouge of the brand. Aware of “the great and precious opportunity” he’s been offered with couture, his aim is to further “experiment” with it, as he acquaints himself with the processes and the clients.

“The atelier, the skills and the virtuosity of the seamstresses are extraordinary. When you come into contact with the atelier, you fall into a spell, it’s an incredible experience, building a dress, a dream around a body.  It’s as if it were an atemporal, mythological and magic space where every stitch is applied by hand — there is not one sewing machine. This is a world and an asset that comes from the past and that must be preserved and protected.”

Michele paid tribute to Venturini but was also upbeat about the new chapter of the company under the lead of Bellini and de Meo. “I started my path with Jacopo and I have so much respect for him, he’s been very important in my career and  he wanted me here. So much has been written about him without knowing the facts,” he said.

He praised Bellini’s “preparation and great sensibility, he listens and it’s important to have an open exchange. It all seems very positive.”

Likewise, he said he had “a good feeling” about de Meo, “who has great energy. I’m happy because we [designers] are like Father Christmas’ little helpers, and people like Riccardo and Luca are passionate about their job and this helps us deliver dreams. I am always positive about change, it can be a source of inspiration. We are in a moment when we should change, go in a different direction. It’s a world that you see is collapsing, all that worked before does not work anymore, and we must find a new balance. I don’t write history and I am not an economist, but we can write poetry and there is so much need for it.”