In times of darkness like the one we live in now, how can eyes (re)open? How does one distinguish a conformist from a companion? With Fireflies, the latest collection from Maison Valentino, Alessandro Michele urges the viewer to ponder the political, specifically, the recognitive role of clothing. His explicit reference is to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s theorized “disappearance of the fireflies,” but Michele does not stop at metaphor: he transforms the image into style, into texture, volume, light. This theory traces back to an episode in the writer’s life. In 1941, Pasolini described a sensual display of fireflies: glimmers seeking one another in “loving flights and lights,” a symbol of vitality that existed even in darkness. Thirty years later he lamented their disappearance, not so much of the lights, but of the eyes that no longer know how to see them. Michele takes up that mourner’s torch and reverses the drift: it is not the luminous creatures that are lost, but the capacity to perceive them. In Fireflies, Michele practices fashion as a political act, proposing an aesthetic that is not ornamental in superficial terms, but charged with meaning. The garments oscillate between transparency and opacity: chiffon, embroidered mesh, delicate lace, and tulle blend with panné, velvet, and metallic materials to evoke intermittent luminescences and suggestive glows.
The silhouette moves freely between masculine and feminine codes, tracing a shared territory where distinctions blur. Blazers with a masculine imprint are reimagined with permanent pleats and precise tailoring, yet softened by subtle curves that hint at an hourglass shape, gently easing their rigidity. Jackets, whether traditionally male or female, speak the same structural language, yet do not cancel each other out; rather, they reflect and refract into one another. In several looks, classic tailoring codes are disrupted by fluid draping, feminine appliqués, and unexpected cuts that temper geometry with softness. Evening dresses do more than shimmer, they actively reflect the light, as if engaging with the scene itself. Gold and silver sequins are applied with deliberate restraint, turning garments into living surfaces without tipping into excess. Some blouses remain barely there, almost sheer; others pulse with prints, while still others surrender entirely to the light, becoming luminous bodies in motion.
“Fashion, in this sense, can become a precious ally. It is its task to illuminate what loves to remain hidden, bringing to the surface shy hints of the future.”
Alessandro Michele introduces unexpected nuances into the collection’s rich color spectrum: mint, copper, electric blue, and flashes of acid yellow create contrasts that don’t disrupt the narrative flow but rather expand it, deepening the poetic tension that runs throughout the collection. Accessories also play a central role in this web of symbolic references. Details like charms, chains, and trompe-l’œil stones, inspired by the delicate glow of fireflies, emerge as subtle yet meaningful visual codes, carefully avoiding any gesture toward the superfluous.
“We must therefore disarm our eyes and reawaken our gaze. Only in this way we can begin to understand how the darkness of our present is, in fact, interwoven with delicate swarms of fireflies.”
The set design, made of flickering lights reminiscent of fireflies, does more than just frame the collection, it amplifies its emotional charge. The setting is conceived as an immersive device that fuels reflection, aiming to awaken the audience’s consciousness to larger messages. Michele doesn’t simply present clothes; he stages an ecosystem of living presences, bodies in motion that come together at the end of the runway in a majestic finale, all looking upward in search of the light emitted by the fireflies. With Fireflies, aesthetics transform into a practice of awakening. The silhouettes do not merely decorate but speak, they are codes, narrative tools that restore to the body, through clothing, the ability to assert itself, to resist, and to signal its existence beyond conformity. Michele uses fashion and beauty to reopen the eyes of a complacent spectator and train them in observation. This exercise takes on a powerful political significance in the current moment, because to look is also to recognize. Often, it is precisely through certain style choices that vigilant observers reveal themselves, standing firm and resisting conformity. In this era of ultimate visibility, the garment and the act of choosing it, becomes a political language, fireflies that still shine.
