Alessandro Michele

Born in Rome in 1972 to a costume-designer mother and Alitalia-engineer father, Alessandro Michele trained at the Accademia di Costume e di Moda before joining Fendi under Karl Lagerfeld and moving to Gucci in 2002. After a decade in accessories and ready-to-wear, he was unexpectedly elevated to creative director in 2015, where his maximalist, gender-fluid, antique-strewn vision — pussy-bow blouses, Princetown loafers, gardenia embroidery — drove Gucci to record growth and reshaped the 2010s luxury lexicon. He stepped down in 2022, and was appointed creative director of Valentino in 2024, succeeding Pierpaolo Piccioli. His debut Pavillon des Folies couture and ready-to-wear collections continued his romantic, narrative-led signature within Valentino's atelier codes.