EXCLUSIVE: Alessandro Michele’s Valentino Gets Prime Visibility at Dover Street Market

MILAN — Alessandro Michele’s opulent vision for Valentino is stepping into Dover Street Market’s global network.

The Italian fashion house has forged ties with the retailer conceived by Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe for a collaboration that will include a series of pop-ups, installations and permanent spaces at the concept store’s international outposts.

Starting from Thursday, a streak of pop-up stores will showcase the “Avant les Débuts” resort 2025 collection — Michele’s debut effort for the brand — at Dover Street Market’s locations in London, Tokyo’s Ginza, New York, Singapore, Los Angeles and Paris.

Flanking these, a special installation within the Elephant Space at Dover Street Market Ginza and Beijing will be unveiled on Nov. 13.

The partnership will successively evolve into the opening of permanent Maison Valentino spaces at the retailer. These will launch in London on Nov. 19, to be followed by ones in Beijing in January and Ginza and New York the following month. 

The brand’s chief executive officer Jacopo Venturini said the two parties linked “by our meticulous attention to detail, by our dedication to creativity and a shared global outlook.”

“It’s a partnership that underscores our maison’s commitment to showcasing our Roman couture heritage in the contemporary landscape. And working together, we will take the Valentino Avant Les Débuts spring 2025 collection by Alessandro Michele to original and exciting pop-up homes all around the world, embracing new clients in unique spaces,” Venturini said.

“Journeys, moments and explorations are the best parts of all of this,” added Joffe, CEO of Dover Street Market. “The unexpected meetings at the crossroads of various hearts and minds are the exciting things we look forward to.”

The Avant les Débuts resort 2025 collection first dropped in the Valentino Paris stores on Saint-Honoré and Avenue Montaigne on Sept. 30 and rolled out to the brand’s stores globally earlier this month.

As reported, the drop was flanked by the release of Michele’s first campaign for the label promoting the same collection, which the designer unexpectedly revealed during Milan Men’s Fashion Week in June.

Michele’s seminal effort at the Roman house was followed by his runway debut in Paris, one of the most anticipated events of the city’s fashion week as surrounded by questions on how the former Gucci creative director would have reinterpreted the heritage of the Italian house founded in 1960 by Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti. The latter was seated front row to show his support for the occasion, alongside Michele’s A-list clique including Harry Styles, Jared Leto, Andrew Garfield, Florence Welch and Elton John, to name a few. The eclectic collection he paraded had echoes of the ‘70s and ‘80s touching on hippie chic, bourgeois classicism and brand codes such as ruffles and the V logo, alongside displaying an emphasis on Valentino’s signature polka dots.