Every collection needs a protagonist. For Valentino Resort 2027, Alessandro Michele introduces the “Villain Teen”: a series of mischievous house guests wandering through an Italian villa in tartan skirts, collegiate blazers, slogan tracksuits, and lavishly embellished eveningwear. We can recognize this attitude immediately: they’re playful, irreverent, and rebellious enough without causing too much concern.
What remains less clear is who they actually are.
Set against the faded grandeur of Villa Gaia Gandini, Michele’s latest offering continues his ongoing attempt to build a Valentino wardrobe fit for a generation less interested in occasion dressing than personal expression. Aristocratic glamour is matched with everyday sportswear; sequined jackets are layered over tracksuits; crisp striped shirts are tucked into slimline joggers. The premise is familiar territory for Michele, whose career has been built on collapsing distinctions between the high and low. This season, however, the convincing part of this idea is not necessarily through the clothes, but in the styling.
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Sure, when viewed together, the looks possess the eccentric charm that has become Michele’s trademark. Oversized jewellery, tinted sports sunglasses, brightly coloured printed caps, and bedazzled belts take otherwise conventional garments into something far more interesting. Yet when viewed individually, many of the pieces feel surprisingly restrained. Cable knit cardigans, grey slacks, and knee-length tweed skirts are all perfectly wearable, but often lack the personality suggested by the collection’s overarching narrative. Not to mention the almost eyerolling amount of uninspiring screen-printed sweatshirts and embroidered track jackets.
That disconnect contributes to the undefined nature of Michele’s central character. The Villain Teen is presented through a series of visual cues rather than a fully formed archetype. There are hints of old-money privilege, adolescent rebellion, and inherited glamour, but the collection never quite settles on a fully formed point of view. Instead, it oscillates between preppy nostalgia, sportswear ease, and Valentino’s longstanding love affair with embellishment.
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There are moments when the collection briefly comes into focus. A leopard jacquard coat trimmed with fur feels like the kind of treasured heirloom a wayward aristocrat might inherit, and a jungle-inspired sequined jacket channels the theatricality that Michele has always done so well. The eveningwear, meanwhile, remains the collection’s strongest offering, with feathered gowns, fringed capes, and embellished dresses, but it only delivers exactly the kind of fantasy Valentino clients have long come to expect. And the less said about the exhausting attempts to convince that the rockstar stud heels deserve to come back, the better.
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Vogue Runway reported Michele describing the collection as a Valentino 2.0 wardrobe, one that liberates elegance from rigid dress codes and prescribed occasions. It’s an appealing and no doubt applaudable idea. Yet despite the abundance of visual clues, the Villain Teen remains strangely elusive. We know they’re rebellious. We know they’re eccentric. We know they’re wandering around an Italian villa. Beyond that, the collection leaves too much room for interpretation of whether they are truly free.
That ambiguity faces less scrutiny among a cruise collection, which in its very premise occupies some kind of liminal space on fashion’s annual calendar. Yet as Michele’s vision for Valentino continues to take shape, the question of whether this is liberating or simply unresolved will become harder to avoid.
