March 13, 2026 |
Staged inside Palazzo Barberini, Valentino left its usual Paris schedule behind this season, returning to Rome – the house’s birthplace – for Alessandro Michele’s latest outing. Titled Interferenze, the collection took its cue from the palazzo itself. Designed in part by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, the 17th century building is known for its push and pull between symmetry and disruption, order and movement. Michele framed the show around that friction, drawing a parallel with fashion as a similar negotiation between discipline and desire, structure and excess.
The show unfolded through the palace’s gilded salons, their frescoed ceilings and baroque detailing interrupted by a carpet of artificial grass and scattered leaves. Michele described it as a slightly surreal intrusion of nature – a gesture that also nodded, loosely, to the bright landscapes of David Hockney.
On the runway, those tensions appeared through contrasts in cut and colour. Tailoring remained close to Valentino codes – sharp jackets and elongated silhouettes – but was offset by asymmetry, draping and unexpected fabric combinations. Michele also revisited one of the late Valentino Garavani’s signatures: the back of a garment. Jackets carried knots and pleats across the shoulders, while the closing red gown traced a thin gold chain down an exposed back.
Colour arrived in layered pairings – mustard with lavender, emerald with burgundy – often cinched with wide waistbands hinting at the house’s 1980s era. Decoration was present but slightly pared back, with attention shifting toward drape, proportion and the smaller construction details threaded throughout.
Photography courtesy of Valentino.
