Alessandro Michele studied at Rome’s Accademia di Costume e di Moda. He began his career in 1994 at the knitwear firm Les Copains before entering Fendi in 1997, working on accessories under Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi.

He joined Gucci in 2002 as a senior accessories designer under Tom Ford, stayed through the Frida Giannini years as her associate and then design director of leather goods, and took over the Richard Ginori porcelain house in 2014.

His signature sits in the collision of fagotting and lace with heavy gabardine tailoring. Vintage brooches are pinned to grandfather cardigans. The GG monogram is revived in needlepoint and clashing florals.

Michele was named creative director of Gucci in January 2015, three weeks after Giannini’s exit. Kering bet the group’s largest house on an in-house unknown.

The fall-winter 2015 men’s show in Milan put pussy-bow silks on boys, fur-lined Princetown loafers on everyone, and pleated trousers cropped above the ankle. The women’s collection that followed sent out the Dionysus shoulder bag, geek-frame glasses, and embroidered bomber jackets stitched with tigers, snakes, and bees.

Against the pared Phoebe Philo Céline and the post-Helmut Lang minimalism that defined the previous decade, his maximalism reset the room. He took the British Fashion Council’s International Designer of the Year in 2015 and the CFDA International Award in 2016. Gucci’s revenue climbed past 9.6 billion euros by 2019. He left Gucci in November 2022 after the brand’s growth had cooled relative to LVMH rivals.

Michele was appointed creative director of Valentino in March 2024, succeeding Pierpaolo Piccioli at the Mayhoola-owned house. His debut, the Pavillon des Folies spring-summer 2025 collection presented in Paris, brought back Valentino red on chiffon column gowns and monogrammed V logos on hardware. The pussy-bow and pussy-cat-collar blouse worked through ruffled organza and printed silk.

At Valentino, he extends the argument he made at Gucci, that historicist romance and dense decoration can hold a major Italian house at the center of the luxury conversation.