January 29, 2026 |
Alessandro Michele took the fash pack on a trip back to Victorian times with his SS26 couture collection, asking attendees to look through the gaps in a series of Kaiserpanoramas in order to see the collection. The Kaiserpanorama, as a precursor to film, was a common form of entertainment at the time, and in Valentino’s show, revealed a range of lavish, Victorian-inspired gowns boasting feather plumes, humongous ruffs and intricate sequin embroideries suited to the new aristocracy. All set to a deep house, electronic soundtrack cut with effervescent opera vocals, it was a fabulous, voyeuristic show that brought the past into the future.
Titled Specula Mundi – translation: Mirror of the World – the presentation landed just days after the death of Mr Valentino Garavani, a fact that inevitably framed the experience. With the collection already complete, the show unfolded not as a memorial, but as an act of custody, reflecting the house founder’s lifelong devotion to craft, rigour and the singularity of the body. The show notes came inked on a vintage looking newspaper printed especially for this show, reinforcing the sense of history being handled, not embalmed.
An antiquated entertainment style usually used to observe moving stereoscopic images as they scrolled inside, the kaiserpanorama offered an almost inconceivable look at far away worlds and cultures. Here, it slipped into fantasia, with the living images inside being models dressed in the kind of incredible clothes you’d dream of as a child. There were talon-clawed gloves, draped duchess sleeves and elaborately embroidered dressing gowns. A liquid gold gown with a cowl neckline shimmered past, followed by a tiered white-gold gown; a ruby red velvet dress with roses felt vampiric, while an opening draped crimson gown set the tone.
The contrast of black, white, red and gold ran throughout, dipping Valentino’s toes into waters rich with flapper, showgirl and silent film glamour. Florals and sequins were swathed in transparent gossamer; slinky silks and satins sat alongside structured tailoring. Elaborate headpieces felt part space age, part Cleopatra, part showgirl, at times edging into an evil queen, almost Maleficent-like register. The theatre of it all was truly fantastic, making it a collection to be remembered for a long time to come.
This obsolete form of entertainment was given new life here “not as a nostalgic citation, but as a critical tool capable of interrogating the contemporary conditions of looking”. In a moment of loss for the house, Michele’s theatre of tiny square peepholes, fantasy and restraint felt pointed: a reminder that Valentino’s legacy is not something to be filled in, but something to be carefully looked after.
Photography courtesy of Valentino.
