The Valentino SS26 collection, titled “Fireflies”, asks us to find our own flicker of light within a world of conformity.
images: Valentino.
The finale of Valentino SS26 runway showcase
As its name suggests, Alessandro Michele’s Valentino SS26 collection takes inspiration from a lyrical muse: fireflies. However, these aren’t just any fireflies. Instead, they’re those that flickered through Pier Paolo Pasolini’s imagination during two pivotal moments.In 1941, amid the darkness of World War II, a young Pasolini wrote to a friend. He described fireflies he’d seen. Their erotic, playful glow was a defiant spark against fascism’s shadow. Fast forward to 1975, and Pasolini had changed. A disillusioned poet declared those same fireflies extinct. They were swallowed by a new darkness: the soul-crushing conformism of cultural standardisation.
Unlike the poet, Michele sees things differently. Rather than wallowing in Pasolini’s later pessimism, he embraces hope. He’s drawn to art historian Georges Didi-Huberman’s pointed rebuttal. The fireflies aren’t dead—we’ve simply gone blind. Furthermore, it’s a provocative idea. Beauty and difference still flicker around us. We simply need to look properly. Michele believes fashion can jolt us out of this collective myopia. Consequently, it can reveal those “shy signs of future” hiding in plain sight.
Michele’s Restrained Approach
So how is this then translated into a wardrobe for Spring/Summer ’26? Well, the collection becomes less about grand statements and more about reawakening our capacity to spot the delicate, the fleeting, the quietly resistant—those fragile glimmers of grace that refuse to be standardised into oblivion. This time, it’s not about more-is-more (believe it or not, this is Michele practising restraint), it’s about rejecting the predictable to embrace the romance, the spark and the poetically defiant.
A New Uniform
The building block of the collection is a combo that pairs the blouse with trousers or pencil skirt—they’re everywhere in the collection.
Usually a stoic ensemble—almost all the blouses are long-sleeved, some with corporate-adjacent Winchester cuffs and collar—Michele injected emotion into the combo. Observe rich chiffon, satin and gathered velvet, plus the occasional bows, florals and sequins.
Touches of Romance
Additionally, florals, sequins and bows (an SS26 top trend) crop up elsewhere. Bow-ties adorn a flouncy baby doll and a tailored dress.
Evening wear resplendent in sequins pay a nod to the sheen of fireflies. An air of romance permeates throughout the collection, further asserted through a flurry of ruching and ruffles, and lace and lamé.
Another S/S ’26 trend, colour-blocking—in shades of marigold, lilac, sky blue and pink—punctuates its way through the more austere palette of beige, brown, grey and black.
A Study in Contrasts
On the other hand, draping (that occasionally veers towards side sashes) create soft sculptures.
In contrast, tailoring inspires strong-shouldered silhouettes in tops and dresses that borrow from suit jackets.
Speaking of, the tuxedo inspires an elegant black-and-white dress, as well as shirt fronts with elaborate bibs.
The collection also pivots between the demure and the brazen, where fabrics switch between the opaque and the transparent: Sheers transition from the sensual to the provocative.
Join the Resistance!
In the end, Michele’s Valentino isn’t asking us to mourn Pasolini’s extinct fireflies—it’s daring us to become them. Each bow, each shimmer of sequin, each unexpected drape is a small act of luminous resistance against the grey tide of sameness. So reject conformity, and wear your own flicker of light.
