For all the elegance the house has built through the years, Alessandro Michele let it all go down the toilet

The Valentino collection for autumn/winter 2025 was shown in a public toilet. Not a real loo for sure, but a set built to mimic, presumably, the restroom at a nightclub, complete with stalls—but without sanitation facilities such as toilet bowls—for models to come through, and to re-enter, as well as clean sinks and mirrors. It’s a gongche (公厕) or public toilet for sure—open for all to see. Le Corbusier famously said that the toilet is “one of the most beautiful objects industry has produced.” He was referring to the latrine, but he probably did not think that a lavatorial setting, even missing the “beautiful object”, could be so delightful to the senses that it would be one to stage a fashion show. Alessandro has set his shows in many a weird stage, but this truly steals the cake. It was as if the clothes by themselves would not be attention grabbing enough, he had to offer more for the world to talk about or be indignant with.

The whole presentation was lit to suggest a red-light district. Everything was so red that you might expect to see “Redrum” appear on the mirror. It was rather Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining that way. In the beginning, you heard knocking and then footsteps from high heels, as if someone was going from door to door seeking an available cubicle. The knocking continued throughout the show intermittently. But there was nothing to arouse the guests’ olfactory receptors. It was just an aural confirmation of the setting, although interestingly no sounds of flushing. The thing to us is that the toilet—in particular the receptacle which holds and flush away our business—has not changed much in the time since its invention in the 1590s or since the first patent issued to it in 1770s. It is tempting to think that Mr Michele was saying that, despite the fact that the content of the toilet will not be stagnant, his design approach has, like the toilet, not changed.

Take, for example, the cat face on the bodice of a bedazzled, floor-sweeping gown. We know where Mr Michele has used cats enthusiastically before (oh, and that harlequin print). And his pet (pun intended) flourishes appeared and appeared, although Valentino’s sense of camp from the 70’s and ’80s was employed for fans to defend his boundless self-indulgence. But, however Valentino his designs appeared, they were lost in Mr Michele’s love of the plethoric. So much was applied on each look that it could be thought that the collection lacked focus, but there was—a focus on his reputation as a devoted maximalist. Although his blend of the historical and the vintage may resonate with those who find no joy in the less ornate and way less overt, the pastiche could be painful to partake. We are aware that, with Mr Michele, the operative word is overload. Visually rich is, however, not necessarily captivating.

“I like the ugly things,” Mr Michele told 60 Minutes Australia with satisfaction back in 2022. There is no doubt Mr Michele loves artifice, better still, over-wrought artifice, even a tad demented. But by now, the ugliness may have become less intense, less fresh, primarily because we have been so exposed to it and have become used to it. Psychologists call it habituation—our response to repeated OTT stimuli that gradually decreases over time. But to ensure that that did not happen so quickly, he added one popular look of the season: Bianca Censori-worthy tops—high-neck lace pullovers that allowed everything beneath to come into full view, including one worn by a woman of a certain age. The collection was, therefore, an astute mix of generational nostalgia and present-day TikTok terribleness. Oftentimes, it’s hard to see toilets and not think of shit.

*toilet in Malay

Screen shot (top): valentino/YouTube. Photos: Valentino