One of the alleys between the Tiber River and Rome's iconic Piazza Navona yields a surprise: one of the few Roman buildings with a medieval tower. It is called the Torre della Scimmia, which belonged to the convent of San Agustín, and which, already in the 16th century, became the property of the wealthy Scapucci family. For a few years now, the Scapucci Palace apartment has had a very particular owner.
This is the fashion designer Alessandro Michele, who as a Roman knows the legend surrounding the tower. A light is said to have shined perpetually since the Virgin Mary interceded to save a baby that a pet monkey of the Scapucci family had stolen from her crib. Michele could have chosen another apartment in Rome, but he was determined to return Palazzo Scapucci to its past glory and when he bought it, he began to uncover the wonderful frescoes on the original ceilings.
He must do something similar with another very particular house in Rome, the Valentino house, which has just signed him as the brand's new creative director with the dream of him repeating the feat he did with Gucci, where he landed as practically an unknown in the world. 2015 and left in 2022 after having tripled the firm's income, up to 9.73 billion euros. Since then, Michele had become one of the most coveted names in the fashion industry, but he preferred to wait to get what he needed most: inspiration.
“I live in the center of Rome and I used to see them often here, but I hadn't seen them for a long time because they had retired to the country house near the city,” says Cinzia Malvini, fashion journalist for the Italian channel. La7, talking about him and his life partner, the urban planner Giovanni Attili. It is easy to recognize him with his long hair and thick beard, which is why he is already called the “messiah” of contemporary fashion. “He is an incredible artist before being a designer, he loves to recharge himself with instruments like the field or painting, and he has a very sensitive soul,” explains Malvini.
Gucci's decision to abandon ship shocked the fashion world because, as The New York Times' discerning fashion critic Vanessa Friedman wrote, under her leadership the brand went from being a "symbol of fading glamour" to a “purveyor of eccentric, gender-fluid style.” What Michele did at Gucci was remarkable: in a time of minimalist fashion, the designer managed to impose his bohemian and exaggerated universe, so in line with Roman aesthetics. More is more, period.
It was also a blow for the Kering group, of which it was the locomotive, since thanks to the success of its iconic bags it managed to make Gucci represent 50% of the turnover of François-Henri Pinault's group. She did it hand in hand with an inclusive philosophy that went far beyond fashion, with a language that blurred gender or race differences. She imposed crooked teeth and hired models with Down syndrome. “All this bravery, the values of gender fluidity or not hiding, are theirs, it is not a marketing speech,” Malvini points out.
There have been many brands that have courted him, and it is said that he was considered for Chanel. But then it would have meant giving up Rome, the city of his life, which in recent years has become a hotbed of great creative minds in the fashion industry, such as Maria Grazia Chiuri (Dior designer) or Silvia Venturini. Fendi. Nor is it changing groups, since Kering bought 30% of Valentino last year from the Qatari fund Mayhoola, which acquired the firm more than a decade ago.
At Valentino he will have the first mission of searching the archives so as not to lose the personal seal of the brand founded in 1960 by Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, and which Jackie Kennedy popularized with the dress for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis. “I am convinced that, thanks to his creativity, his culture and his multiple talents, he will know how to exquisitely interpret the unique heritage of this magnificent house and make it shine,” celebrated Pinault.
