There's been a changing of the guards happening across the face of luxury fashion these last 18 months, but none have been quite as surprising as the announcement last week from Pierpaolo Piccioli that he would be stepping down as creative director of Valentino after two decades at its helm.

In his stead, the Italian fashion house have announced the imminent appointment of none other than Alessandro Michele, whose first collection for the House is slated for Spring 2025.

While we speculate which House Piccioli will end up at next, we decided to take a look through the Michele fashion archives to see if the best and most iconic moments throughout his storied fashion career might point the way for his future legacy at the wheel of Maison of Valentino...

 

Setting the tone: Gucci Fall Winter 2015 Menswear runway

The start of it all – Alessandro Michele's Gucci debut collection was a pretty clear indicator of his future at the House from the get-go. Androgyny and pussy bow blouses; geeky silhouettes enmeshed with preppy leisurewear, all of which felt like it could have been pulled from the wardrobe of a Wes Anderson film.

 

Resurrecting Renaissance: "Gucci Hallucination" Spring Summer 2018 campaign

The House's SS18 campaign was one of the highlights under the tenure of Michele. Classic artworks were superimposed with characters in the House's colourful collection, in a collaboration with illustrator Ignasi Monreal. Highlighting Michele's love for Renaissance designs, the campaign was a stunning tribute to his aesthetic and the Gucci identity.

 

The beauty and the horror: Gucci Fall Winter 2018 runway

Severed heads and baby dragons – perhaps Michele was an avid fan of Game of Thrones at the time, or perhaps he let his particular brand of phantasmagoric camp run free this season. Either way, it was one of the creative director's most memorable and strange moments at the House (even Jared Leto, as a guest of Michele and Gucci, brought a replica severed head to the Met Gala in 2019). The collection was polarising to say the least, but was a clear marker of Michele's unwavering, fantastical vision.

 

Athleisure icons: Gucci x adidas “Guccididas” 2022 collab

Solidifying Michele's standings in the athleisure space, Gucci's now-iconic Guccididas collaboration with sporting juggernauts adidas in 2022 was a cultural crossover for the ages. The sportswear label's three stripe motif was fused with Gucci's signature accessories, apparel and footwear designs, and Gucci took their branding to the sneaker-of-the-moment, the adidas Samba.

 

Seeing double: Gucci Spring Summer 2023 runway

The final instalment of his fantastical vision at the House, Michele's Twinsburg show was an homage to his fantastical vision and fascination with the phenomenon of twins. During the show, models who initially appeared single file, were mirrored by their doppelgänger siblings as the partition lifted to reveal another set of stands. Twin metaphors and imagery have long influenced Michele's work at Gucci, from his Kubrick-inspired twins in his AW22 campaign, to Alessandro Michele himself twinning with Jared Leto at the 2022 Met Gala.