MILAN — Valentino is extending the narrative of the “Specula Mundi” spring 2026 couture collection through the release of a book of the same name by British photographer Mark Borthwick.
The book will be unveiled during a cocktail event Tuesday evening at the Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles in the presence of Valentino’s creative director Alessandro Michele and the brand’s chief executive officer Riccardo Bellini.
For the occasion, a Kaiserpanorama installation will recreate the original scenography of Michele’s “Specula Mundi” show held in Paris last January inviting guests into an immersive experience, where a continuous visual sequence will bring the book’s imagery to life. Specula Mundi is Latin for “mirror of the world.”
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Conceived as a collector’s piece and produced in a limited edition of 1,500 numbered copies, the “Specula Mundi” book, with 422 images over 260 pages, will retail at $350 and be available from May 11 in select Valentino boutiques worldwide.
“This book is connected to visual arts and ties in with my work and with fashion,” said Michele in an exclusive interview ahead of his trip to L.A. “I would not define Mark as a pure photographer; he is a poet that also uses photography to capture a moment, to deliver suggestions,” said the designer. “The camera is like an extension of his body.”
He recalled Borthwick’s photos of Sinead O’Connor and of American dancer Martha Graham and her namesake dance company, which allowed him to capture movements and choreographies “dancing with the camera, without looking into the lens.”
Michele also remembered working with Borthwick on the ad campaign for the Gucci x Harry Styles Ha Ha Ha collection in 2022, when he was creative director of that Italian brand.
“I am very fond of Mark, I respect him, I like him and he is part of my life,” he said.
Asked to describe Borthwick’s talent, Michele remarked on the “dryness of his style, which is similar to the poetry I am attracted to in this moment, when only a few words can be potent and intense, a dryness that makes his images so special and so evocative. I am also interested in how he re-elaborates my work through his own eyes. I always like it when others handle my work and discover new and hidden sides in my designs. Mark uses empty spaces, he says they are an open door to freedom.”
In the book and through Borthwick’s vision, Michele said his couture designs “seem to float and I don’t recognize them. It’s as if they are suspended in time and Mark adds longevity to them.”
While Michele’s autobiography titled “La Vita delle Forme: Filosofia del Reincanto [The Life of Shapes: Philosophy of Re-enchantment],” written with philosopher Emanuele Coccia, was released in 2024, the idea of a book to capture the couture collection came to him as he pondered the uniqueness of this garment-making, describing it as “an oracle that survives AI and technology. There is something magical about it.”
His trip to L.A. precedes his attendance at the Met Gala on May 4 and, while declining to reveal who Valentino will dress, Michele said that admiring the seamstresses working on the gowns that will be worn on that occasion, he marveled once again at their “precise, laborious work and I feel it’s only right to share it with others and make it last in time. Their story can be told in many different ways. With Mark it was a way to narrate their poetic, manual work. They produce magic, an impalpable world, it’s like a spell and I try to extend this enchantment in time. The book is an an act of love toward them and Mark is the first name that I thought of. He is a photography wizard.”
In fact, there are also images of the seamstresses in the book, paying tribute to the women who have contributed to the success of Valentino. “It’s all very joyful.” Case in point: Michele referred to one woman who is marking 52 years in the atelier.
Recalling Borthwick’s shoot in Paris, Michele said he was fitting the models for the couture show and the photographer “would [figuratively] ‘steal’ the clothes and the models, without asking anyone how the garments were supposed to be worn, and at times he intentionally re-interpreted them the wrong way, gently manipulated them to turn them into something else. When I first saw the photos, they looked like installations, and the bodies seemed to float. There are elements in movement, heads without the dresses, some like sacred shrouds, and he photographed part of the clothes that you would not normally see.”
Michele is familiar with the Marciano Art Foundation, as he is with Los Angeles. “I go to churches and art galleries with the same ease and curiosity, not knowing what I will find,” he said, smiling. “There are great galleries in L.A., like sanctuaries on those long and boundless streets, where you can find a mall, a supermarket or a gallery, which leaves you a bit disoriented, the latter sometimes a surprising discovery.”
In November 2021, Michele held the Gucci Love Parade on Hollywood Boulevard and, over the years the designer has built a web of friends from Los Angeles and Hollywood, from Dakota Johnson and Julia Garner to Jessica Chastain, Jared Leto and Miley Cyrus.
“I am very fond of Los Angeles, and it helped me build my personal culture on contemporary life, it makes me think of freedom and of dreams. It’s a place where you dream well.”
His other friend, Demna, who succeeded him at Gucci as artistic director, just unveiled a series of tapestries in Milan and Florence that depict Michele as a knight on a horse. Asked to comment, he chuckled and gave the project a thumbs-up.
“Demna wrote to me telling me he wanted to do this and it’s fun, he looks at things in a different way and I’m all for it. My hair is a bit lighter but it is fictional after all and I really like the semi-goddesses or muses behind me, they are so beautiful.”