Books sitting unread on a shelf. Judged solely by the fact that they have not been read, they might seem to serve little purpose. Yet open one someday, and it may introduce us to ideas, stories, or lives we have never encountered before. Seen this way, unread books are both evidence of everything we do not yet know and a repository of worlds still waiting to be discovered.
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For Valentino Spring/Summer 2027, titled ANTILIBRARY, Creative Director Alessandro Michele translates this potential of the unknown into fashion.
The idea of the “antilibibrary” begins with the personal library of Italian novelist, philosopher, and semiotician Umberto Eco, who owned some 30,000 books. Thinker Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote about Eco’s library in his book The Black Swan.
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What matters here is not how many books Eco had already read. The greater value lies in those still unread, filling his shelves. The more our knowledge grows, the more aware we become of the vast unknown beyond it. An antilibrary, then, is not a monument to erudition, but a research tool—a visible accumulation of what we do not yet know.
Courtesy of Valentino
Michele also finds a parallel in the Japanese practice of tsundoku: acquiring books and allowing them to accumulate unread. Rather than simply an act of procrastination, each unopened volume contains lives, ideas, and stories we may one day encounter. Precisely because it remains unopened, it preserves the anticipation of future discovery and pleasure.
What happens, then, when this idea is applied to fashion?
Every season, countless garments are created. Some enter someone’s wardrobe and are worn again and again. Others cross a runway only once. Some continue to exist primarily through images, while others are owned and treasured yet rarely, if ever, worn.
If we think of clothing only in terms of its function—to be worn—how much value do the latter possess?
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Through the idea of the antilibrary, Michele looks beyond that question of utility. Clothes can exist in our gaze, memory, and imagination before they ever touch the body. Even if we never wear them ourselves, their silhouettes, colors, embellishments, and relationship to the body can prompt us to imagine forms of beauty, identities, or even ways of living that had never occurred to us before.
Seen this way, the value of clothing can no longer be measured simply by whether it is practical or actually worn.
This season’s looks resist converging into a single idea of character. There are dresses in vivid colors, feathers and fringe moving with the body; checks juxtaposed with sheer materials; sporty caps against ornate tops; relaxed tailoring; a long black dress layered with jewelry; and an evening dress rendered in intense pink.
Rather than appearing as characters within the same story, each look seems to stand at the threshold of a different story yet to begin.
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Michele imagines the fashion show itself as a “visual antilibrary.” What it contains are possibilities of form, aesthetics, silhouette, and ways of inhabiting the body. Even if they are never all realized as part of an everyday wardrobe, together they become an archive of expressive possibilities capable of carrying the viewer’s imagination somewhere else.
The runway becomes like a bookshelf filled with books we have not yet read.
Here, Michele’s thinking intersects with the concept of “potentiality” explored by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. The value of a possibility does not lie solely in its realization. Before something resolves into a single form, many different paths remain open—and those not taken do not lose the value they held as possibilities.
Courtesy of Valentino
The clothes of a fashion show occupy a similar territory. We cannot own or wear every garment that appears on a runway. Yet by encountering clothes we did not choose, and may never wear, we can still imagine: perhaps I could be this person, too.
Fashion, then, acts not only upon the present in which it is consumed, but upon worlds that have yet to become real, expanding the boundaries of what we are able to imagine.
Just as a book left unopened on a shelf contains a world we do not yet know, a garment we may never wear can place another possibility before us. This is not about regretting a choice we failed to make.
Courtesy of Valentino
Choosing a color unlike those we normally wear. Entering a silhouette we have never inhabited. Accepting another idea of beauty. From there, perhaps imagining a life we might have lived—or one we might still live.
Courtesy of Valentino
Michele frames this not as regret, but as a “bright promise.” The very existence of possibility can make the world broader, richer, and more inhabitable. We have the capacity to expand the worlds we can imagine, placing ourselves, if only momentarily, within places we have not yet seen—or may never reach.
Courtesy of Valentino
What ANTILIBRARY asks is not how many clothes we own, nor how well we can wear them.
Perhaps because clothes do not exist only to cover the body. Just as an unread book can become an entrance to an unknown world, clothes we have never worn—and perhaps never will—can invite us to imagine forms of beauty, bodies, and lives we do not yet know.
Courtesy of Valentino
With Valentino Spring/Summer 2027, Alessandro Michele’s ANTILIBRARY becomes a library of clothes containing possibilities that have yet to be realized.
Alessandro Michele | Courtesy of Valentino
Courtesy of ValentinoFor Valentino Spring/Summer 2027, titled ANTILIBRARY, Creative Director Alessandro Michele translates this potential of the unknown into fashion.
A Library for the Books We Have Not Yet Read
The idea of the “antilibibrary” begins with the personal library of Italian novelist, philosopher, and semiotician Umberto Eco, who owned some 30,000 books. Thinker Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote about Eco’s library in his book The Black Swan.
Courtesy of ValentinoWhat matters here is not how many books Eco had already read. The greater value lies in those still unread, filling his shelves. The more our knowledge grows, the more aware we become of the vast unknown beyond it. An antilibrary, then, is not a monument to erudition, but a research tool—a visible accumulation of what we do not yet know.
Courtesy of ValentinoMichele also finds a parallel in the Japanese practice of tsundoku: acquiring books and allowing them to accumulate unread. Rather than simply an act of procrastination, each unopened volume contains lives, ideas, and stories we may one day encounter. Precisely because it remains unopened, it preserves the anticipation of future discovery and pleasure.
What happens, then, when this idea is applied to fashion?
Even a Garment That Walks the Runway Only Once Has Meaning
Every season, countless garments are created. Some enter someone’s wardrobe and are worn again and again. Others cross a runway only once. Some continue to exist primarily through images, while others are owned and treasured yet rarely, if ever, worn.
If we think of clothing only in terms of its function—to be worn—how much value do the latter possess?
Courtesy of ValentinoThrough the idea of the antilibrary, Michele looks beyond that question of utility. Clothes can exist in our gaze, memory, and imagination before they ever touch the body. Even if we never wear them ourselves, their silhouettes, colors, embellishments, and relationship to the body can prompt us to imagine forms of beauty, identities, or even ways of living that had never occurred to us before.
Seen this way, the value of clothing can no longer be measured simply by whether it is practical or actually worn.
The Runway Becomes a Library of Possibilities
This season’s looks resist converging into a single idea of character. There are dresses in vivid colors, feathers and fringe moving with the body; checks juxtaposed with sheer materials; sporty caps against ornate tops; relaxed tailoring; a long black dress layered with jewelry; and an evening dress rendered in intense pink.
Rather than appearing as characters within the same story, each look seems to stand at the threshold of a different story yet to begin.
Courtesy of ValentinoMichele imagines the fashion show itself as a “visual antilibrary.” What it contains are possibilities of form, aesthetics, silhouette, and ways of inhabiting the body. Even if they are never all realized as part of an everyday wardrobe, together they become an archive of expressive possibilities capable of carrying the viewer’s imagination somewhere else.
The runway becomes like a bookshelf filled with books we have not yet read.
Possibilities Do Not Have to Be Realized to Have Value
Here, Michele’s thinking intersects with the concept of “potentiality” explored by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. The value of a possibility does not lie solely in its realization. Before something resolves into a single form, many different paths remain open—and those not taken do not lose the value they held as possibilities.
Courtesy of ValentinoThe clothes of a fashion show occupy a similar territory. We cannot own or wear every garment that appears on a runway. Yet by encountering clothes we did not choose, and may never wear, we can still imagine: perhaps I could be this person, too.
Fashion, then, acts not only upon the present in which it is consumed, but upon worlds that have yet to become real, expanding the boundaries of what we are able to imagine.
Clothes We May Never Wear Can Show Us Another Life
Just as a book left unopened on a shelf contains a world we do not yet know, a garment we may never wear can place another possibility before us. This is not about regretting a choice we failed to make.
Courtesy of ValentinoChoosing a color unlike those we normally wear. Entering a silhouette we have never inhabited. Accepting another idea of beauty. From there, perhaps imagining a life we might have lived—or one we might still live.
Courtesy of ValentinoMichele frames this not as regret, but as a “bright promise.” The very existence of possibility can make the world broader, richer, and more inhabitable. We have the capacity to expand the worlds we can imagine, placing ourselves, if only momentarily, within places we have not yet seen—or may never reach.
Courtesy of ValentinoWhat ANTILIBRARY asks is not how many clothes we own, nor how well we can wear them.
Why Do We Need Clothes We May Never Wear?
Perhaps because clothes do not exist only to cover the body. Just as an unread book can become an entrance to an unknown world, clothes we have never worn—and perhaps never will—can invite us to imagine forms of beauty, bodies, and lives we do not yet know.
Courtesy of ValentinoWith Valentino Spring/Summer 2027, Alessandro Michele’s ANTILIBRARY becomes a library of clothes containing possibilities that have yet to be realized.
Alessandro Michele | Courtesy of Valentino
