Valentino Asked Guests to Bring a Book, Then Sent Out 80 Looks Built for the Closet's Back Row

Alessandro Michele gave Valentino's Spring 2027 show a rule for the guest list: bring a book. On Sunday, October 4, attendees arrived at the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris's Latin Quarter with a book for donation, according to WWD. Reuters describes celebrities holding theirs up for the cameras and the fans outside before taking seats at long oak reading tables under the library's iron arches.

The books were part of the idea. Michele titled the show Antibiblioteca, after the term Umberto Eco used for a collection of unread books. WWD reports that Alexander Skarsgård brought a collection of Icelandic sagas, and The Zoe Report lists Colman Domingo with Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Cynthia Erivo with Giovanni's Room and Zoey Deutch with The Sixth Extinction. Michele told WWD, in a preview, that he likes the idea of owning a beautiful piece he will probably never wear, and compared his own wardrobe to his shelves of unread books.

The clothes were Michele at full volume. Reuters describes silk corset tops in blue, yellow and hot pink, each matched with a skirt in a different colour, lace pieces trimmed with ostrich feathers, and a closing look in Valentino red with a giant black bow. WWD adds a fuchsia satin column gown with a huge pleated rosette train, and 1980s power blazers worn over lace cycling shorts. The Zoe Report counts 80 looks, among them see-through mesh evening gowns with bright taffeta bustles at the back and balloon trousers in pinstripe.

Valentino

Everyday pieces, and a lot of jewellery

Michele stayed on the maximalist side of the line. The most ordinary pieces, per WWD, were double-pleated jeans, plaid shirts and baseball caps printed "Villain Teen," which Reuters also saw on the men's side. Men wore half-buttoned double-breasted jackets and sequinned shirts with tinted sunglasses, and women and men carried cross-body bags or rectangular clutches with studs and sequins. The jewellery was heavy: Reuters notes baroque gold necklaces and giant pearl earrings.

Valentino

Valentino

A turnaround that hasn't turned yet

The show sits against a business problem. Valentino moved from an operating profit of €31 million in 2024 to a €103 million loss in its most recent full fiscal year, according to WWD, and Reuters puts the revenue decline at 15%. Michele has led the house since March 2024, after eight years at Gucci. In June, Valentino's shareholders, Qatar-backed Mayhoola with 70% and Kering with 30%, committed additional financial support for 2026 after the company's debt rose, and Reuters says Kering has options to take full ownership before 2029.

That makes an Antibiblioteca show a pointed choice, and the show notes, as The Zoe Report quotes them, say clothes are made for very different trajectories: some pass the runway once, some live on in images, and some go into wardrobes and stay almost untouched. It is a defence of the pieces people buy and then keep as objects. Whether that logic sells at a loss-making house is the open question. WWD quotes him saying he does not want to live fashion "just as something that belongs to numbers."

Valentino's own page for the show opens with 20 looks, so you can see the colour pairings above against the house's photographs rather than the reviews. For more of the week, see our story on Jonathan Anderson's Dior show.