The Verdict on Alessandro Michele’s Valentino Couture Debut

PARIS — “I don’t want to disappoint anybody, but I am not a tailor, and not even a couturier: I am well versed in the theory of dressmaking, and am good with pins after all these years, but I can’t make things with my hands,” admitted Valentino designer Alessandro Michele in a press conference after the electronic grand guignol of his first ever couture show. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a costume designer — and I think it shows in what I do.”

Show it did. The outing Wednesday afternoon at Palais Brongniart was a blast: more multimedia performance than couture defilé for which the clothes were indeed costumes. This was clearly no traditional couture set up. The room was pitch black as guests were escorted to their seats; stadium bleachers in place of gilded chairs. And in place of the ordre de passage, a thick A4 envelope was laid on each seat. Inside, a text signed “Alessandro” rhapsodised over the “vertigo of the list” (inspired by a magnificent Umberto Eco essay) before describing each of the show’s 48 looks as a list of words. And as each look took the stage to blaring sounds and blinding lights, a screen displayed the list of words associated with it, along with its number.

The effect was vertiginous indeed — an assault even. Then there were the characters in their costumes: dramatic and abrasive in their opulence, donning crinolines, floaty capes, tailleurs, harlequin and pierrot regalia and so on. But the thing about a performance is that you have to be there in the moment to get the full effect, and this extends to the costumes. Therein was the problem with the collection: as costumes within the performance, the pieces were a blast; stripped of the performance, less so, despite the atelier’s exquisite execution.

Michele’s work has often wandered into luxuriant quotation and, in this collection, one could see, alongside the Valentino archive, a wild and wonderful pillaging from costume designer Danilo Donati, and what he did for Pasolini, as well as historic paintings, a bit of Vivienne Westwood, Leigh Bowery and quite a lot of Demna, who was in the audience. This, of course, informed a few shapes, but mostly the character-building, which was new and exciting.

The cast, with many ageing beauties, truly made the spectacle and brought the dresses to angular life. There was a crudeness to the whole endeavour that felt promising, though what the Valentino couture clientele will make of it is anyone’s guess. (Michele said that once the crinolines are removed, the dresses change). It will be interesting to see where the designer goes from here. His next couture show is in a year from now. “Couture requires time, and we have to take care of it,” Michele said backstage. That’s a luxury but also a curse.