Inside the Méta-Théâtre: An Exclusive Backstage Look At The New Valentino A/W25 Campaign
Alessandro Michele reimagines the public restroom as a liminal stage of identity, desire and intimacy — a place where fashion becomes language, theatre, and a meditation on what is seen and unseen. Discover exclusive images from Valentino’s AW25–26 campaign, Le Méta-Théâtre des Intimités
When Alessandro Michele unveiled his Autumn/Winter 25–26 collection for Valentino on the runway earlier this year, he set the tone for what has now crystallised into the house’s latest campaign: Le Méta-Théâtre des Intimités. Then, the show unfolded as a theatrical meditation on what happens when private rituals are placed under the public gaze — models stepping out of cabinet doors, the stage transformed into a liminal space where intimacy became performance.
The campaign revisits and expands upon these ideas. Shot by Glen Luchford with art direction by Christopher Simmonds, the images unfold within a Lynchian, red-hued public bathroom. It is a stage at once familiar and unsettling, an in-between space where private acts of self-care and transformation happen in full view. Michele employs this setting as both metaphor and manifesto: the bathroom becomes theatre, the individual becomes character, and clothing is the script through which identity is performed.
References span eras and aesthetics. There are echoes of the 1980s punk underground, layered with baroque detailing. Underwear slips into the realm of outerwear, and tailoring collides with decadence. Among the cast, singer-songwriter Clairo and performance artist Kembra Pfahler heighten this metaphor of intimacy and spectacle — their presence underlining Michele’s fondness for fusing pop-cultural immediacy with subcultural edge. It is Valentino through a heterotopic lens: dystopian yet romantic, theatrical yet deeply personal.
In today’s world, where privacy is an ever-thinning veil and identity is constantly performed across social platforms, Le Méta-Théâtre des Intimités resonates beyond fashion. It is a reminder that what we consider private is often already public, and that self-expression, however intimate, inevitably becomes part of the collective stage. For Michele and for Valentino, the campaign asserts that fashion is not just about what we wear — it is about how we negotiate our place in the world.
Images Courtesy of Valentino
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