Alessandro Michele delivered his latest Valentino couture collection today (January 28) in the French capital, less than 10 days since the death of the brand’s founder, Valentino Garavani, who died surrounded by family last Monday (January 19). This meant that there were even more eyes than usual on today’s show, but for guests attending in person, they had to watch through individual peepholes. Why? Because Michele had erected 12 kaiserpanoramas inside the space, of course. Allow us to explain…

WTF IS A KAISERPANORAMA?

Essentially, a kaiserpanorama is a large-scale zoetrope (but doesn’t spin), invented in Berlin as a precursor to film. People would peek through a pair of lenses, while perched at one of the 25 viewing stations, to get a glimpse of the rotating stereoscopic glass slides. Weirdly similar to one of today’s VR headsets, by looking through the lenses, viewers were able to experience a sort of virtual reality, often observing other cultures and travelling the world from where they were sitting. “The image doesn’t overwhelm the spectator, not yet, it educates him. It teaches one to stay still, to focus the gaze, and to assume a position built on attention,” wrote Michele in the show notes. Unlike today’s endless scroll and short attention spans, audiences would be transfixed by the world inside a kaiserpanorama – just as Michele would hypnotise guests with this afternoon’s opulent collection.

WE GOT READY IN LILY ALLEN’S HOTEL ROOM

But before that all began, we crashed Lily Allen’s hotel room to catch up while she was getting ready for the show. Among other things, we chatted about Allen’s love for Michele’s work, her New Year’s resolutions, her classic Taurus tendencies, and her recent turn as a catwalk model for 16Arlington. Check out the full conversation above.

GUESTS GATHERED IN ALESSANDRO’S FINEST

After we caught up in her hotel room, Allen travelled down to Avenue Georges Lafont for the show, where she was greeted by fans, photographers and her friend Dakota Johnson. The actress famously played Allen’s love rival Madeleine during a performance on Saturday Night Live, and the pair were reunited once more for Valentino latest couture.

Joining the duo on the front row were Kirsten Dunst in a powder blue mini, Quen Blackwell looking prim and proper in a high-neck blouse, plus a regal Tyla in an embellished minidress and long purple cape.

WE PRAYED AT THE ALTAR OF COUTURE

What would you see if you were to look through an Alessandro Michele kaleidoscope? Or if you were to enter a world built from his eclectic range of references? You’d see Elizabethan England meets Marchesa Casati, you’d see the 1970s doing the 1920s, you’d see capes, crinolines and claws coming out the end of gloves. This was Valentino SS26 couture.

The opening look – a plunging, batwing gown in striking crimson – was surely a tribute to Mr Valentino and his iconic shade of carmine, first used for his debut collection in 1959. After that deceptively simple opening gambit, silhouettes expanded, and fabrics became more ostentatious, dripping in jewels and lacquered in sequins. Michele’s show notes outlined how, for this collection, the Kaiserpanorama “takes the shape of a contemporary altar: a place for symbolic concentration that establishes a rituality.” This ethos was reflected in the divine bodies that entered each space – pronged headpieces resembled halos, their gilded exteriors reflecting the rooms’ intense lights, while diaphanous gowns bordered on the angelic.

SHOWGIRLS TOOK A STARRING ROLE

Michele didn’t only look to the heavens for this season’s inspiration, though. 1920s Art Deco references were woven throughout, especially in a velvet green gown with gold block detailing, and a metallic headpiece formed by a cluster of jagged silver. Like Miguel Castro Freitas’s Mugler debut last September, the showgirl also seemed to be a source of inspiration for Michele, but in a much more literal sense. Great plumes sprang from the shoulders of various models, while others wore quilled headpieces and carried plumed fans.

ALESSANDRO PENNED A TRIBUTE TO MR VALENTINO

After the show had ended, Michele posted a lengthy note on Instagram addressing the recent death of the maison’s founding father. “Valentino Garavani passed away just days before the Haute Couture show, when the press release had already been sent to print and all the work was in its final stages, too advanced to be reversed,” he wrote. “Yet I feel compelled to speak, conscious of a debt I owe.”

In the letter, Michele paid tribute to Mr Valentino’s unparalleled legacy, venerating him as a mythological figure, but also stating that “a myth does not belong to the past: it establishes a language, discloses a world, makes habitable a space rich with meaning.” Elsewhere, the designer expressed gratitude for being called to guard Valentino’s legacy “for whatever time is given”, and also thanked former creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli for their contributions to the house.

“Today, Valentino’s absence is real, tangible. It tears open a deep and painful void. Nevertheless, his presence is still warmly felt,” Michele continued, in conclusion. “Only by accepting such a void, with no intention to fill it, can Valentino’s legacy remain what has always been: an idea of beauty conceived as a noble form of responsibility toward time, bodies and the world we are given to cross.” A fitting tribute for the incomparable fashion emperor.

Scroll through the gallery at the top of the page for the entire SS26 couture collection