While Paris Fashion Week’s glitterati partied at star-studded soirees, the buzziest ticket in town on Sunday wasn’t a front-row seat—it was a public restroom. Or, more accurately, a labyrinthine set designed to look like one.
This was Valentino’s Fall-Winter 2025 show, where creative director Alessandro Michele transformed a Parisian venue into a gritty, red-lit bathroom wonderland complete with tiled floors, flickering strip lights, and mock cubicles. Models emerged from (and occasionally vanished into) these stalls, wearing lingerie-as-outerwear, lace sheer dresses, and even a silk bathrobe paired with a necktie.
Dubbed “Le Méta-Théâtre Des Intimités” (The Meta-Theater of Intimacies), the show marked Michele’s Valentino debut after two decades at Gucci. It was a bold statement: “Privacy is dead—let’s make it fashionable.”
A Toilet as a Metaphor for Modern Life
Michele’s inspiration? Filmmaker David Lynch’s surrealism and philosopher Michel Foucault’s theories on public vs. private spaces. In the show notes, he called bathrooms “counter-places” that dissolve boundaries: “Here, the intimate becomes public, and the mundane becomes myth.”
The collection mirrored this duality:
- Lingerie as armor: Lace bras peeked beneath tailored suits; thongs were visible through sheer skirts.
- Nudity vs. modesty: A model in minuscule shorts was followed by one shrouded in a full-length black cloak.
- Domestic rebellion: A plush bathrobe was styled with a crisp button-down and dress shoes—“pyjamas for the boardroom,” as Vogue put it.
As Foucault once wrote: “The toilet is civilization’s underbelly, but also its truest mirror.” Michele turned this idea into couture—by exposing our most private garments to public gaze, he made shame feel… chic.
Michele’s Rebellion: From Gucci to the Bathroom Stall
This wasn’t just a fashion show—it was a manifesto:
- Redefining Valentino: No more predictable red gowns. Now, it’s a brand dissecting identity, desire, and digital-era voyeurism.
- Meta-commentary on privacy: The “meta-theater” label nods to our lives lived half-online. We overshare on Instagram while craving anonymity—a paradox Michele turned into art.
- Sustainability twist: The collection used recycled silk and biodegradable sequins, 呼应 ing the bathroom’s role as a “urban waste system.”
Even the invitations were a troll: “TP rolls” for tickets, “tampon packaging” for entry. Michele trolled the fashion elite by merging high art with lowbrow humor—a middle finger to the industry’s obsession with “purity.”