This might be an unexpected match, but for Alessandro Michele, that is the point. The campaign begins with nature tearing through structure, turning stability into something restless, fluid, and alive. At the center of Michele’s vision is the interplay between technology and nature. The imagery, generated with AI from Valentino’s Le Méta-Théâtre Des Intimités show, does not flatten reality but heightens its strangeness, amplifying the surreal quality of the campaign.

Courtesy of Valentino Garavani x VANS

Checkerboard patterns appear in electric green with oversized orange leaves, in pink stamped with Valentino’s monogram, and in red-and-black iterations that pulse with graphic intensity. Playful twists emerge in pairs covered with “I ♥ My Vans” slogans or adorned with illustrated cat faces, designs that balance wit and whimsy with refinement. Couture shows here its ability to engage with humor, elevating what seems lighthearted into something emblematic of cultural commentary.

As Michele explains, the project is about “allowing worlds to collide, dissolving what seems permanent so something unexpected can emerge.” Water becomes the guiding force. It nourishes even as it dissolves, erasing boundaries and destabilizing order. In this vision, water is paradox: both threat and rebirth, intimacy and catastrophe, abandon and resistance. It unsettles, yet it also opens the door to something new, an architecture of impermanence in which fashion is not merely an object but an atmosphere. The use of AI mirrors water’s fluidity, representing a passage from one state to another, a transition where the digital and the organic converge to reshape how fashion can be imagined.

Courtesy of Valentino Garavani x VANS