Former Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele has joined Valentino, the Rome-based couture house and takes over from Pierpaolo Piccioli who has left the fashion brand after 25 years. In a statement, Alessandro Michele said that “It’s an incredible honour.” He also said that “I feel the immense joy and this huge responsibility to join a Maison de Couture that has the word ‘beauty’ carved on a collective story made of distinctive elegance, refinement, and extreme grace.”
Alessandro Michele, who was previously the former Creative Director of Gucci will be working alongside Jacopo Venturini, who is Valentino’s CEO. Vogue reported that they both “previously worked as colleagues at Gucci, where Michele spent seven years as creative director, and Venturini was vice president of merchandising and global markets.”
Jacopo Venturini has expressed his delight at working with Alessandro again and said that “I am certain that the reinterpretation of the Maison’s couture codes and the heritage created by Mr Valentino Garavani, combined with Alessandro’s extraordinary vision, will bring us moments of great emotion and will translate into irresistibly desirable objects.”
Over the years, in his tenure at Gucci, Alessandro Michele worked with such A-list celebrities as Harry Styles, Dakota Johnson, Jared Leto, Billie Eilish and actress Lupita Nyong’o. The Gucci outfit that Harry Styles wore to the 2019 Met Gala was certainly memorable, it was known as 'free the nipple' as his bare chest was on display in the sheer ensemble.
In my opinion, one of Alessandro Michele's finest creations when he was at Gucci, was the dress Lupita Nyong wore to to the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. She stunned in a green gown with floral embellishments.

1. Harry Styles (dressed in Gucci) made his debut at The Met Gala in 2019, here he is with the then Creative Director Alessandro Michele
The Gucci outfit that Harry Styles wore to the 2019 Met Gala was certainly memorable, it was known as 'free the nipple' as his bare chest was on display in the sheer ensemble | getty Photo: getty

2. Lupita Nyong' o stunned in green Gucci at the Cannes Film Festival
In my opinion, this was one of Alessandro Michele's finest creations when he was at Gucci. Actress Lupita Nyoung' o wore a stunning green gown with floral embellishments at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2015 | getty Photo: getty

3. Jared Leto at the 2019 Met Gala
Jared Leto wore a captivating Gucci outfit to the 2019 Met Gala, which included a lifelike head he was seen carrying on the red carpet | getty Photo: getty

4. Dakota Johnson in Gucci at the red carpet of the movie "The Lost Daughter" during the 78th Venice International Film Festival
Wow! This is just a dream dress that Dakota Johnson wore to the red carpet of the movie The Lost Daughter. The Gucci sparkly dress by Alessandro Michele was breathtaking | Getty Images Photo: getty