Alessandro Michele Is Building On Valentino’s Vision of Beauty

0:03This is The Run Through. I'm Nicole Phelps. I'm on the ground at Paris Couture Week and there's lots to be excited about here. Not least of all, the couture debuts of Jonathan Anderson at Dior and Mathieu Blaisier at Chanel. Hello, Margot and Bouba, Vogue's senior beauty editor here reporting live from Couture Week in Paris. Today I started bright and early. I went backstage at Schiaparelli, 8 a.m. Paris time. And the look at Schiaparelli was very alien skin. This is something we've been seeing season after season at the show. I do feel like Daniel Roseberry and Pat McGrath, who was doing the makeup there, have really perfected that ability to give and create skin on the models that just sort of glows and feels like totally couture level unattainable, which I love.

0:53A few minutes later, I hopped back in my car, was backstage at Dior. It was such a calm and chill backstage, especially for the fact that this show had so much gravitas. Jonathan Anderson's first couture show. One thing I have to say about the Dior show, and I've noticed this since Jonathan stepped up last year, we need a shoe camera. All of these shoes were freaky. They were fun. There were these satin pumps that came in like a pink and a blue. I was very, very into. Speaking of Galliano, also, he was in the room with us. When he and Anna walked in together, the room like went silent with excitement and with anticipation.

1:39I was seated across from Carla Bruni. I want to say big feet for me. I've always admired her, found her so beautiful, etc. But I also found it very fun for her to sneak a little vape pin during the show. I saw Sunday Rose Walk, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's daughter. Christian Louboutin was there. He was seated near me. So was Pharrell. Pharrell kept his sunglasses on the entire show. And then when we were walking out, the flood of people. We were trying to leave. Oh, my God. The bodyguards? The bodyguards were climbing over chairs trying to get to their clients, which I found amazing, hilarious.

2:22I just love to people watch, and couture is the creme de la creme of people watching. Okay, back to you, Nicole Phelps.

2:36Checking in late night from Paris after day one of couture. It was Jonathan Anderson's big day at Dior, his couture debut. At the preview, he admitted to, as recently as three years ago, not being interested in couture. He told me, I was trying to find what the purpose was, but then I applied it to how I love craft. And I realized, well, this is just an endangered craft, so how do you protect it? I appreciated how modern his couture felt, especially his use of knits. You know, couture is often thought of as very structured and corseted, and he rejected all of that. I saw at least one dress that I feel confident I can say will be at the Oscars.

3:30We also saw Daniel Roseberry's Schiaparelli show. And, you know, I think he set out to impress. It's a week defined by these debuts, but he really wanted to flex and that he did with a collection that was quite dramatic and based on lots of different animals. You know, fierce creatures, as fierce as couture gets. I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow when it is Mathieu Blasier's turn to show us his Chanel couture.

4:10Today we're revisiting an especially meaningful conversation. In January of last year, I spoke with Alessandro Michele right before his own haute couture debut as creative director of Valentino. Last week, we lost Valentino Garavani, the founder of the house and one of the greatest designers of modern couture. Listening back now, in the middle of couture week, what stands out is how Michele speaks about Valentino's legacy and the power of couture as something made slowly, by hand, and with devotion. He reflected on walking the halls of Palazzo Migninelli, the headquarters of the Maison, and on the responsibility of taking the lead at a house so profoundly shaped by its founder.

4:49Here's my conversation with Alessandra Michele.

4:56Ciao, Alessandra. I'm so happy to see you, even if it is over Zoom. And Happy New Year to you. Oh, thank you. Happy New Year. I mean, it's going to be the 2025, so I'm pretty positive. It's my number. It's a great number. And we're exactly, we're taping this podcast exactly two weeks from your Haute Couture debut for Valentino. So please tell me, tell me what your mood is like. How excited are you? I'm always like excited and stressed and nervous and happy. Many things, you know, because it's something that must be like this, you know. Otherwise means that I'm not on the right way. But I'm very excited and happy because I'm feeling so different, you know.

6:00And yeah, for the Pret-a-Porter, it's completely different, you know. It's the process, everything. So I'm curious too, you know. It's like that I'm approaching at something that I don't know. I mean, there is a piece of this trip. I need to really touch it to see what will be in Paris, you know. Well, I have to admit that I have gotten a preview of the piece that Rebecca Mead has written for the next issue of Vogue, in which she spoke to you. And you speak a little bit about how the process of making couture is different than ready to wear. And I wonder if you would dig into that a little bit here.

6:45I mean, there's a sort of a quality of building it from the foundation up, from the ground up. Yeah, I think that the first thing that I would like to say that being here in this house, that is not really a brand, you really feel it that everything started from the haute couture. I mean, it's almost everywhere, you know, the, how can I say, the shadow of that culture, you know, snaking in every corridor, room, hands, brain. People are almost working here different. You started to think in a different way, you know, every single piece, every single thing that you do. So I was very curious to investigate, you know, with my body, my eyes, my brain, my thoughts in what's really different, you know.

7:54And the first thing that I met, it's the, this unbelievable place. There is the salon full of incredible people that they, it's like every single person is like a little wizard or kind of, you know, witch or something, I don't know, magical. And everything is under a spell, you know. When you walk inside the laboratory, it's like to be in another place, but also in a space of time that doesn't exist. So it's incredible. You know, you see things that I never experiment before, like working on a piece for days, days, hours and hours, you know, and that's very different. And all the ritual of the making, it's completely different.

9:02Just the chance to use your hands so much and to see these beautiful things that you're at the petite man, as I think they're called. the things that they can do with their hands. Yeah, they do things, incredible things. And you can work in just one piece and you have to dedicate all of you to every single piece for hours and meeting, appointment. It's like a body. It's like a person that you are like building or making, you know, from zero. It's like a piece of architecture, a piece of, you know, it's very, I mean, it's, I think that it's something that people should see because it's very hard to explain.

10:04It's like when you're in front of something that belongs also to the nature, like a sunset, you know. You will spend hours, you know, to describe maybe shades, you know, lights, the volume that you see in front of, you know, the light that is building that volume, the incredible thing that you are seeing. But you can't really explain with the words, you know. So, I mean, every time I saw the dress and the things that are on the way, you know, and they are going to finish, you feel like, I don't want to say stupid things, but you feel like a kid. I mean, I'm working from a long time, but I never felt like this.

10:58So, I mean, it's really incredible. How would you say that it's unlocked your creativity? I think that that process and that this experience opened different doors, you know. I mean, in a way, at the beginning, I thought that it was exactly the same, you know. So I was going and I started to walk with the same process. And I found, you know, like a voice that was like whispering, you can go on in the same way. Because, I mean, I think that I just trying to take off from my brain, I think that I was like trying to understand what's the connection in the process between doing, you know, woman ready to wear show and a haute couture show.

12:03I was trying to understand what I had to change in the process because it's like that you need to spend a lot of time in just one piece, you know? And it's something that you can do really on the ready to wear because you are working like in thousand pieces and you have also to work going on on every piece. If you choose, if you put together the things, this is like a single piece. poem. You have to sing just one song every time. When you look at that dress, you have to be concentrated on that dress. You have to give to that dress all of yourself in a very deep way. It's like a love affair, you know.

12:50It's like that you are dating because every day, I didn't decide, Nicole, they choose me. I mean, all the single group of tailors, They were asking for an appointment because there was like a date. Meeting that body that came from nowhere, you know, because you are so free that you, sometimes you like creating your own like monster, you know, thing together. The things that came from somewhere very deep inside your, you know, mind, brain, heart, stomach. So it's a very deep meeting, very intimate and just with one person. It's every single dress is like a story, many words, many thoughts, many investigations.

13:55More with Alessandro Michele after the break.

14:03Thank you.

14:51And we're back. When I met you in September before your Ready to Wear debut, you talked a lot about the Valentino archives. And I wonder if you're looking at archival or vintage couture a lot through this process. You also just mentioned that there are many other references that you're weaving into the work. Yeah, the archive here is a presence. I usually say that it's a part of the story that you can ignore, you know. It's strong. It's fascinating, seductive. It's snaky. you try to ignore. Sometimes it's still here and it's strong. Yes, I went to the archive as usual and everything started from a dress.

15:44You know, it was so big, the ocean, that I was trying to look at just a little piece of something that was really interesting. And I started from a dress of Valentino and I was reflecting probably, Probably, and I'm sure how Valentino, Mr. Valentino loved culture and probably cinema and history of art. I think that he, I mean, looking at some pieces, you can really recognize that he knows very well many things, you know, many interesting things from the past that he translated in the present, doing incredible and dreamy things, you know, very, yeah, very, sometimes, I mean, looking now at that pieces that I didn't remember really, you know, and I was trying to think, I mean, why he did, what he was looking at and what I have to look at, why I have to do this process, you know.

16:57So yes, I started from that. I think that I'm going to open with a kind of, um, I don't want to say every edition, but, uh, um, an homage to a dress that came from the archive. I mean, I'm still thinking that that dress is going to be the first one that everyone they're going to see. It's never a copy, you know, it's more that I'm trying to investigate that kind of beauty that Mr. Valentino built. I mean, I'm not him and I will not, I mean, I can compare myself to him. I'm another person, but yes, but sometimes I know that I'm in his home and sometimes I'm getting kind of strange suggestions. And yes, I'm processing everything inside my brain, body, and experience.

17:55I'm looking at you on this Zoom screen and you're in a beautiful space. Can you tell me a little bit about your new office and how you've made it your own? I mean, that's this This mythical and incredible building that is Palazzo Mignanelli in Piazza Mignanelli Square in Rome, on a side of Piazza di Spagna, it's an incredible place for, first of all, for the soul of this place. It's not about just the beauty of the building, of that stunning, incredible things that you're saying there is a piece of renaissance of Roman Palazzo. This room, it's on, there are on this floor two rooms. One was the room in the office of Mr.

18:51Valentino that is a little bit smaller, but so elegant with an amazing ceiling. And this is the space that, for what I got, it's the space that belongs to Mr. Valentino and especially Mr. Giametti. I'm glad you brought up Giancarlo Giametti because I was seated a few seats down from him at your show in the fall. And I was so touched to see that he had his phone out and he was FaceTiming with Mr. Valentino, who wasn't at the show. So Mr. Valentino was watching the show while it was happening. And it just, you know, talk about the full circle of life or of a brand. It felt very moving to me. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about your debut and what are the, you know, the memories now.

19:47It's a few months later. What do you cherish most about it?

19:54Not easy. Many, many things. If I go back, it's, I mean, it's just yesterday, you know, it's not really a long time. But I was so nervous and I felt myself so strange because outside was such, I mean, I was feeling that incredible energy, you know, that from people that I know, friends and family and colleagues and Jacopo Venturini, that he was like there with me. And yes, also all the people and Giancarlo and probably Mr. Valentino that was not there. But I was surrounded by love. And I remember I still keep in my heart and in my brain many skies that I saw from the big window of Place Van Damme when I was working all these, that beautiful dresses and things, I was always with that incredible frescoes outside the window I mean that light that you can see just in Paris sometimes and I spent like more than a week in that incredible place, working with all my energy, love, laughing with all the people that were sharing with me that dream.

21:42I think that it's been such a great experience, you know, because being for 21 years in Gucci, in another brand, and discovering another place so rich and so seductive, you know. And I felt myself like in the middle of a poem, a novel, book. Yeah, everything was so magical. I knew and I understood very clear that there is such a big connection between that job and me, you know, and all the beautiful things that belongs to this job that is such a gift, you know. So this podcast will be coming out shortly before the Couture show. And I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about your plans for how to show it.

22:38The show that you did for Ready to Wear, for Pret-a-Porter, was, you know, very moody with the cracked glass floor and the furniture covered in slip covers and, you know, this vibe of, you know, going into the Valentino attic or your grandmother's attic. Are you planning something similar or will it be more traditional in the traditional sort of salons of couture?

23:08No, it's not looking really traditional, I think. But I'm not sure about tradition. I mean, I'm really bad. Yes, I got it, what you mean. No, I'm trying to work. You know, Nicole, when I work, I'm working on a movie of a theater piece. I'm thinking about you, that you're coming in a space. I need you to show what I'm thinking about and what I want to make you experience, you know. I need to make you take a walk in my brain and in my space. Take a walk in my brain. That is such a great way to put it. And it made me think of something that I was talking with my colleagues, and they pointed out, and I think this is correct, that you don't work with a stylist the way many other designers do.

24:16Can you talk a little bit about that? Why do you choose not to when a lot of your peers really rely on that stylist relationship? I think, I mean, that's very, I think, such a personal thought and such, I'm talking about me. I mean, the styling, it's a big piece of the job. Also, it didn't come at the end. It started with the idea of the volume, of the length, of the attitude. Who is that woman? Who is the crew? In which way they're going to... Because where they think... I mean, you can change in a very strong way the attitude of a dress, or the look changing and putting layers or taking off pieces or finding the face, you know.

25:16And I think that it's 100 % my job because I'm not a tailor. I'm not a couturier. I respect their job. And I like many stylists. I think that some of them, they can get a job also. Because a big creative director is not far in a way. You need many pieces of the cake. It's a big composition. I mean, for me, I like fabric. I like the research. I like to look at the movie, to read the book, to fix the world, to change the hair, to put my hands. I'm the one that works a lot with the hairdresser, with the makeup artist. I mean, I feel myself also like a hairdresser, for example. It's all my job. And it's the most fascinating, beautiful part of the job.

26:18I mean, how can you think about a skirt doing just a skirt? It's like that you are writing a line of a poem, but just a line. and what it's going to be. It's very weird, you know. But, I mean, I understand that other people, they like to share and to approach their job in another way. I think that the landscape, also the playground is huge and there are many ways to be. I like to be in this way, and I don't know other ways. One of the many observations that I've made looking at your show again and again in the months after is that, you know, I never wear dresses or skirts, but you have made me want to buy all sorts of Valentino tights and stockings because there's just so many beautiful tights and stockings in your show and in the lookbooks for the preseasons.

27:25seasons. So I wanted to talk about the people, the real life people who we've seen starting to wear the Valentino clothes. Coleman Domingo looked so incredible at the Golden Globes. And I think the next night, Elle Fanning was in New York City in the loveliest lilac dress. And how does it feel to start seeing these pieces walk out into the world? I'm happy because, I mean, I'm not the one that tried to push, you know, people. I like that the friends we met, we knew, they like what I'm doing, that they take the pieces from the dream and put in the real life, and the real life started to be like a dream.

28:14and Elle was amazing and yes, everybody were amazing. Lana, that is a friend, she was amazing and new people also came, I think, curious to see about, you know, the things that I'm doing. I think that is beautiful, you know, and it's incredible because it's when I look at the things and I see the things outside from the catwalk, you see something a little different, you know, that it's interesting, you know. You see a piece of your thoughts or things that you know very well, that are very familiar, that are like embodying other lives and, yes, piece of other lives. And you see something different.

29:04So I think that that's the story of every single dress and that's the story of fashion, you know, that you do things and they leave you forever. They're going to walk somewhere that you are not with them. They like the kids or pieces of your life that are, you know, like without control. And I like, you know, because the people also interpret it. I mean, it's one of the things that I really love because, as you know, I have a big passion to be as a also custom designer to see different faces. It's more connected with life, so I like it. More with Alessandro Michele after the break.

30:00This week on the political scene from The New Yorker, Trump's rupture in the world order. Europe caught between two adversarial great powers. That's basically dialing back the clock to not only pre-World War II, but really it's a pre-20th century view of the world. And I would say it's a world of permanent insecurity that we're looking at. Join me, Evan Osnos, and my colleagues Jane Mayer and Susan Glasser every Friday on the political scene. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

30:38Let's talk about real life for a minute. What have you been reading or watching lately that you've loved? Is there anything that's touched you recently? There is a movie that I still keep in my heart from years and years. It is Dancing in the Dark with Catherine Deneuve and Bjork. That is the masterpiece. I mean, I never, ever saw, watched something like this, ever. Recently, but there are many, you know. I think that one of the most incredible things that I saw recently, it's seeing my two nephews growing, touching my life and my way to see the earth, my life, the future, the light that I see in the countryside.

31:37I have a beautiful, cozy place in the countryside and they are the light, piece of the light of my life. And now they are like giants and they were like two little, you know, babies. They make me think about the future in such a positive way. They make me think about the light that I see in the countryside as a miracle, as they are. That's the things, the most beautiful things that make me feel in a different way. It's an easy thing and a simple thing. And sometimes I'm very complicated, you know. When I look at them, it's simple. It's just incredible. It's just incredible when you see that red light in the sky, you know, in the winter, in the countryside at 5 o 'clock p.m.

32:40Then you see this life is incredible. They are incredible, you know. I have two nephews, too, so I can relate to what you're saying. At the show in the fall, I was really mesmerized by the soundtrack, and I wrote about it in my review. But there was this refrain, joy we must chase, joy we must chase. And so moving. And when I told my colleagues I was interviewing you and I said, is there anything you want to know from Alessandro? And people are quite curious about your real life because you live beautifully. And so I wonder if you could tell us a little bit more about, you know, your time away from Valentino.

33:25Valentino? You spend a lot of time with your nephews maybe, but what else do you like to do? I like to do simple things, you know, because I think that I, I changed the simple thinking very complicated. And I also, I think that I'm really good to select what I really need, you know, also when I'm trying to do nothing. I mean, I'm really good. When I lived also the company, and I had more than a year just by myself and my things, I discovered that it's so incredible when you find the right way to be just doing nothing. that it's so hard, you know, not watching Instagram, not doing nothing, maybe having a walk in the countryside, you know, for an hour.