Transcription
Alesandro, it's such a pleasure to be here, and what an amazing office! What a beautiful space. You've only been here for three months; I know you're just settling in. So, it's a real pleasure to sit down with you for this interview for this special series of BOF 500 podcast interviews.
We're talking to people about success because success is different for everybody. Success looks and feels different. Sometimes when people talk about success in the media, they talk about it as if it’s a straight line, but success comes in all different forms. You know, success also comes with challenges and failures along the way.
You're clearly a success, but you're here in a way having a second coming, you know, a second moment. Success is often followed by another challenge, and so I'm really excited to have this conversation with you. I want to get into your mind to understand how you're feeling right now, how you're thinking right now, and also to share some advice and guidance for other people who look up to you.
My first question for you is really, when you think about success, how do you define success? What does success look like and feel like to you?
**CH Imran:** It's a big question. I don't know if I'm capable of explaining exactly. If I had to think about a successful life, or a kind of success, it's not a pyramid; it's not a way to go up, but it's more circular.
I'm thinking about life as a circle. Maybe you can move somewhere in the circle where you feel better, and if you're not feeling better and you're not doing the right thing, you can just move a little bit in another space of this circle. It's more about moving left and right than up or down.
I think that society pushes people to think about the way that is good or bad to be in your life—going up or getting back down. It's not me. I'm thinking more that success is when you are in the right place, when you are in a place that you choose, when you're free to be yourself.
I don't want to look like the guy that tries to say simple things just to look better, but it's unrealistic because it's life. It's a space; you just have to move where you feel more comfortable.
Yes, maybe for most people, I'm the one that had a kind of success. The reality is that to me, it's more that I had the chance to share what I'm doing, the things that make me feel good, with other people. That could be the image of success, you know? But it could also be that when you're sharing something with 10 friends, 15 people—people that believe in the same things, you know, that share the same thoughts.
Most of the time, I don't like the word success. It's not my word.
**Interviewer:** I really like the way you talked about it as a circle because, in a way, we're in a full circle moment right now with you starting in a new house here at Valentino. I wanted to go back to the first circle, though, when you started at Gucci. You were kind of plucked from the background, right? You'd been working in the background with Tom Ford and Frida Giannini, and you'd been at Gucci for many years. Then all of a sudden, you were given this opportunity. How did you feel at that time? What was going through your head when you were given the keys to this incredible new opportunity?
**Alesandro:** Yes, I felt that there was something interesting, deep, and maybe sometimes big. But I really felt that it was that big almost at the end. Because when you are in a love story, a love affair—because for me, it's been a love affair—I was already there. I worked with so many people, and I knew the company well because it's a huge place, Gucci.
Yes, maybe when I started, it was smaller than now, and maybe it was a big Italian brand, but it was a different time. So many things changed in the last 10 years. I think that the world of fashion changed; the world changed. I just had fun, you know, because I was surrounded by friends and people that worked with me for years and years.
It's been such an amazing time—a time where I was able to read my story, you know, and the company, and put on paper a vision and make the vision real. Let the young generation and all the people, old and young, enjoy this moment together. It's been almost eight years of joy and happiness. I don't know how everything happened; it's still a mysterious thing.
**Interviewer:** I think it all happened really quickly, right? I remember there was that first men's show, and then a few weeks later, there was the ready-to-wear show, and it kind of shifted everything.
**Alesandro:** I worked so hard, you know, because I love my work. I'm loving my work. Sometimes, I mean, also in the last year, I was thinking maybe I can give up, you know, because I can do a movie; I can do other things. Maybe I did almost everything, but I understood that it's my playground—the one that I really feel.
At that time, as you said, everything came very quickly. But I think that when you have an intense life—not because I'm the one that usually goes out a lot—I'm not usually shy in real life. I'm a good boy; I can have many conversations. I like people.
But being sometimes on that stage, especially when I remember I got the first award after many months, I mean, I'm totally relaxed with my job, but I don't like to show myself. I don't know why. It's intense, you know, because when you have in front of you more than 30 people, I think that it's a human thing that you can really deal with that, you know, massive numbers of people.
I feel more comfortable around a table of eight people maximum. But yes, it was my life, and it was part of my job, right? Part of your job became engaging with many people—many more than 30 people, millions of people on the internet, as you said, sometimes reacting and responding in polarizing ways.
I think one of the biggest challenges for designers right now, or realities of designers, is that everything is scrutinized so much. I mean, how do you protect your creativity when there's so much attention, so much scrutiny?
**Alesandro:** I try more to concentrate on the things that I like and be concentrated on whether I'm happy or not. That's the problem. I try to walk always on the right side of the way because when you pretend to be for everybody, it's very complicated.
I'm trying to be good with myself, and that's a big deal. You know, it's a big thing because I'm almost 52 years old in November, and I'm enjoying my life and who I am. I think that that's a good way to feel yourself, you know, good and happy.
Maybe trying to—I don't want to say ignore—but I don't like to give. I'm trying to feel myself not connected with people that maybe are very different or they don't understand. It's normal that when you are pretty popular, it's a stupid thing to try to be concentrated on.
I think the real life is always a good thing to look at, you know? Our conversation here, me and you, I don't lose myself. I don't waste my time doing this crazy thing like checking everything.
**Interviewer:** So you're not reading all the comments and all that stuff?
**Alesandro:** I don't like these kinds of things. I mean, I think that people are free to say what they want. I need to be happy. It's a strange time because in the past, it was not like this. As you said before, I never thought when I was a teenager or when I was younger, starting this job, that I could be like a pop star sometimes.
Because I started and I was concentrated on completely other things, and I was not thinking about my body, the way I look. I'm pretty obsessed with being happy with my look because I need to feel exactly who I am in my body, but just for me and for maybe friends, my sister, my partner, real life, and myself first of all.
Now it's like that. I mean, yes, you have to start this conversation with, you know, hundreds and thousands of people that you don't know, I mean, on social media. They put a comment under every single picture of you.
Maybe the only thing that I'm feeling there is that they just put in these kinds of comments and conversations something that for me is still pretty mysterious. They seem to be very aggressive sometimes. It's like they're stealing something from them.
It's interesting, and oftentimes they're doing it with the veil of anonymity, right? It's like this anonymous account. So, you know, sometimes if you click on some of those really harsh messages, you can see it's just someone who's...
**Alesandro:** It could be. I think that if you're young, it could be very complicated. I'm more from the other age, I mean, from the other century. I'm not so good with technology. I play with the iPad, but I'm not so good.
So maybe because I don't feel that this is real life. I mean, real life is the one that I can really see with my eyes, that I can touch. So maybe that's why I don't put so much into that kind of activity. I feel very far from it.
That's the real life, I think.
At some point, you parted ways with Gucci. Why did that happen? What happened that you decided to leave?
**Alesandro:** I mean, there are many reasons, you know, kind of personal reasons. When a job doesn't fit anymore with you, maybe you don't feel in the right place at the right moment. I mean, when I started, I felt in the right place.
At the end, I started to feel the pressure a little bit. The company was huge, many people. I mean, it's like a relationship; you just feel that you are not in that relationship anymore. I left the company really happy because I had such a great time.
I'm not the guy that has regrets. If I had the chance to start again, I would do it again. It's part of my life. But I decided with a very easy and simple conversation that that was the time, you know?
I was really happy because I was thinking that maybe there is a time for everything. I think that it's also really good when you feel it because when you try to walk on the same street that you know is not going in the right place, I think there is a gift that you can feel.
**Interviewer:** Do you make a lot of decisions based on how you feel? Does that guide you a lot?
**Alesandro:** Yes, a lot. If I don't feel good, I'm very sincere with myself. I think that that's the most precious thing that I'm trying to keep inside of me. I think that I'm almost the same person, the same guy, the same boy that I was at the very beginning.
I mean, it's the same thing. I'm the same person; I have the same energy. When I came here, I felt there was another place, another home. I was so happy to start something new.
I like the moment that I'm living now. I'm not nostalgic; I'm just happy looking back at the things. When I think about Gucci, I see beautiful frescoes, colorful, full of energy. I'm still surrounded by the pieces of that fresco and surrounded by love and friends.
When I signed this contract after a year and a half, they were all happy, like they were signing with me. I'm still surrounded by those people. Yes, I think that I'm lucky. I'm lucky because everything is the same; I'm still the same.
**Interviewer:** That's probably quite critical to your... It sounds like it's the same message I'm hearing on a number of different levels, which is in order to continue on this path, you've had to stay really in touch with yourself and your feelings. But also that you don't change—that you don't let the success, in quotation marks, you don't like that word, you don't let it change you.
**Alesandro:** No, not at all. I don't need to change. Why should I change? I want the Alesandro that feels everything. I don't need another one. It took me so much time to make him.
Now I'm talking about me as another person feeling good, you know, and being happy. So I want to be with him, not with another one. Because when you are in your body, you feel everything—your arm, your mouth talking now, for example, your eyes looking around at beautiful things, feeling the energy of nice people.
It's always you. Yes, I know that could be dangerous because there is a part of the world, of society, that makes you think, "Okay, it's not you now; you have to change because people expect things from you."
But first of all, I'm not capable of doing it. So that's the reality. Maybe I would love to do it; I don't know. I don't think so. It's more that it's not true. You must be who you are because it's a great thing to be in contact with this body and this life—walking in the street, feeling the ground, feeling the breeze of the air. You know, that's life.
That's God.
I want to talk a little bit about the period in between Gucci and Valentino because you said you had a year and a half. How did that feel? What did you do? How did you spend that time? There must have been so many thoughts going through your head, so many feelings. You had so many opportunities being offered to you. How did you navigate that period, and how did you want to spend that time where you got to take a bit of a step back?
**Alesandro:** Simple things—staying at home, things that I couldn't do, working like 8 hours every day, traveling everywhere. So the new thing was no airport, no plane, nothing—just me, my people, friends, my two nephews, my sisters, friends, my life, my beautiful home.
Having so many walks in Rome, I didn't travel that much—just a few times in London, Paris, sometimes for me, sometimes because, as you said, I had so many conversations. I took my time. I really wanted to be sure that I could really get to the right place.
So I had such a beautiful time because I think there is a gift. I never had in my life, from when I was starting to my first job, I never stopped. So it was a new feeling, but I felt just me and my life.
I really enjoy the countryside, so I had the chance to drive in the countryside wherever I wanted, spending time like three hours for breakfast, spending time outside, you know, coffee shops with friends, just chatting, going to the museum just by accident because I was in front of a museum. I was like, "Okay, I get inside."
I wanted to spend time just me and myself. I mean, I share my time, but in a simple way, but very rich. I think that I didn't have such a rich life like in that year and a half, you know, because it's been a moment that was just me.
I don't want to say simple things because they were not simple. Life is about things, and the little things are the most fascinating, you know? Can you imagine in December, staying outside in a coffee shop in Rome with that little light of sun and a cup of hot cappuccino, looking at the facade of the building, and feeling the season, the winter?
Also, when I was in the countryside, looking at the trees, I didn't have the pressure inside of me. I had to work, work, work. Yes, I love my work, but it was a lot. It's been an amazing time.
**Interviewer:** Did you discover things about yourself? Having worked for so many years non-stop, 20-plus years, when you stopped for the first time, did you have any learnings about yourself or discoveries that you said, "Ah, I think that I really discovered that the kid is still with me"?
**Alesandro:** I'm a kid. I'm not a boy; I'm not a man. I'm a kid in maybe the body of a man. So I was so happy to find again that kid, that spirit. I was like, "How could you be so happy every day?" I don't know.
I think there is a gift, really, but I discovered again. I found the kid sleeping with me, eating with me. I was with that kid, you know? I felt myself on the safe side of the street. I thought, "Okay, I'm with the kid; I'm not alone. He's here with me, so he can enjoy everything with me."
That's been the real discovery. I mean, I felt that the kid was with me. But when I started to be alone and I was trying to understand what it was like without working so crazily, I thought that I was in such a good... I had such an amazing companion and partner in crime, and we had so much fun together.
**Interviewer:** Yes, I found him. You know, my executive coach sometimes asks me to think about my younger self and give advice to my younger self and think about him. It sounds like you were spending a lot of time just engaging with that younger version of you that's still there, that you stay true to.
**Alesandro:** That's so true. I didn't... I mean, I don't know if sometimes I'm not sure if we are together or if it's just me that I'm also scared that people could understand that I'm a kid. Sometimes when you talk with people that are maybe the same age or maybe older than you, I look at them like, "Oh, they're going to feel it that I'm a kid."
They're going to get it immediately, and I don't feel guilty. I just feel... I mean, there are times that I feel uncomfortable, but in the last years, I got information that I can be a kid. It's not that bad; it's amazing.
I usually say that I'm like a wild fox. I feel also like a wild animal, you know? That's a good feeling. I think there is a feeling of freedom because I have this fear of not being free.
**Interviewer:** So your fear is to lose your freedom?
**Alesandro:** Yes, exactly. So, I mean, that's bad. Why is that your greatest fear? I don't know. Maybe because I really fight for this freedom from the very beginning of my life, and people don't like that freedom. They feel more in control when you are not free.
So it's not easy, you know? Keeping alive your freedom, and sometimes I'm also trying to investigate, "Are you really free?" Because I don't want to waste my time. I mean, I have just this life, and I really enjoy it. I like this life, and I want to be sure that I'm kind of free.
When you were in this period of reflection and thinking about freedom, did you ever think that you might just never go back to fashion? Was there a moment where you thought that fashion and all of the success and fame and attention had taken away some of that freedom and that you didn't want to go back?
**Alesandro:** Yes, at the very beginning, I thought, "Now I maybe have more freedom; I'm going to get more freedom." But it was not true because I didn't really stop with this attention that I had from the outside.
Yes, I mean, it's a state of mind being free, but I think that you are free when you can do what you feel you need to do. You can be free working also, you know? You can be free. I mean, it's not because you're popular or famous that you are not free.
It depends on the way that you talk with the state of mind that you have. I didn't have really the open conversation with this popularity. It's been more about what you really feel. For the first year, it was hard because maybe the spotlight was bigger in a way.
**Interviewer:** What do you mean?
**Alesandro:** I mean, the people were curious because you were not anymore on the stage, so they were like, "What is he doing?" There was speculation.
**Interviewer:** Yes, there was speculation.
**Alesandro:** Yes, so it was maybe sometimes more strange because I was like, "What do they want to know? I mean, I'm just doing nothing, taking a break."
In the beginning, I was pretty... No, I don't want to say oppressed, but I was sometimes surrounded by paparazzi and people. That didn't happen really in the past. I mean, less so, almost because you weren't in a public job, and everyone knew what you were doing.
It almost made it harder because I was like the one that was walking in the street like I didn't care. I mean, I don't care the way that I go out, but they were always doing comments, speculation, and things.
I think that it didn't change as I thought, honestly, because I lived and the job because I didn't... I was not on the stage because I was thinking to do something new. Maybe I was not. Maybe yes, maybe I'm with him, with her, walking in the street.
That's a friend; he's a friend of him. I mean, that's the crazy world of being popular. But if you ignore it in a sweet way, you know, because I know that people are curious, I think that you can have your freedom.
But I would say again, I mean, you can be free being in the right place, working like I'm feeling now, working with many people that I like. I feel free. I'm working also. I mean, my CEO is a person that I really respect, Yakobo, and he's a friend—a person that I really respect, very talented. That's why I also feel free.
**Interviewer:** So talk to us about how you decided to come here because you had many conversations. There were lots of other things. There were some LVMH conversations; there were some other things that you were looking at. Why did this Valentino opportunity bring you that sense of freedom that you were looking for?
**Alesandro:** Because, you know, I mean, if I really followed my instinct, I had many conversations, as you can imagine, and many interesting conversations. I met so many nice people who really wanted to work with me.
Maybe in the future, I don't know, but you must choose something, and I just try to feel, yes, again, my stomach. At the very end, at the very, very end of many decisions, this job came out.
I thought that Valentino is such a fascinating place, you know, full of life. The life was someone else that I invented this place, you know, and this home. As you know, I love life, and I love to spy on other lives and to work on finding the past of other people.
When I had this conversation with Yakobo, I was thinking, "I like the brand; it's the one that I can really do a good job." I mean, there were a few elements that were really working with me.
What were those elements? A kind of dusty chic, Italian, crazy, quirky, and dreamy brand that has the name of a man who came from this incredible story of... It was completely different from Gucci.
So I loved to deal with different challenges, you know? That's the thing that I really loved about this place—full of life and stories and about his life and the unbelievable world of art and the beautiful things and friends of him, relics of the past.
I was thinking doing now could be so interesting. But the other thing was Yakobo. I mean, I spoke also with Rashid, who is such an elegant and nice person, a very interesting person. We had so many conversations.
Yakobo, when you like yourself and you want something good for you, you need to respect and love the people that are going to work with you. Yes, I was loving the idea to go back with Yakobo, that we worked together in Gucci for, I think, five years. I'm not sure; I'm really bad with time.
**Interviewer:** That sounds right to me. What is it about CU? It's dream work, you know? The idea of the relationship between the CEO and the designer is so important in fashion.
**Alesandro:** Totally. Why do things work so well between you and Yakobo, or what is it that makes it so magical?
**Alesandro:** I think that Yakobo understands so many things. He has a big instinct. He's the only CEO that really understands and likes fashion. You can really feel it when you talk with him. He has this sensibility; it's very rare.
I think there is one of the only ones that have this peculiar thing. The other thing is that we had so much fun together. We laugh a lot; we work so hard, but it's like being with someone that you really like, that you would love also to go out for a nice dinner.
Can you imagine that you can work with this person? That's the best. He's so precise; he's so accurate. He lets me do the right things. We usually work together. I share things with him; he shares things with me.
So it's a very concrete but also dreamy thing, you know? We like to enjoy the things that we do, and I can't wait to show him what I'm doing. It's amazing. It's like when you have a...
**Interviewer:** A real... How can I say? I mean, yes, easy, maybe.
**Alesandro:** Kind of a friend, you know? Because that's not what we say is a job, but it's very complicated, you know, to let this word hug with just one hug the entire meaning of this life.
It's not really a job; it's a big thing. You need to make it real, you know? So to have the chance to have a real person that you can have a real relationship with him, it's really the best.
It started to become not just a job but a dream place.
**Alesandro:** Yes, it's hard also because I ask myself a lot when I'm working and ask questions of myself, yes, of my thoughts and the things that I'm doing. I want to work so hard; I fight with myself a lot, and I'm obsessed with the things that I'm doing until the end.
I think Yakobo is the same, so we try to make it easy and fun.
**Interviewer:** It sounds like you also have a foundation of trust, which is essential.
**Alesandro:** I think so, yes, right? Because a real friend is someone you can trust, and that means in an industry or a business like fashion, to be successful, you also need to take risks.
**Alesandro:** Yes, so many. But it's hard to take risks with someone if you don't trust them. You guys have that foundational basis upon which to take those risks together.
**Alesandro:** Yes, that's so true. I mean, you are taking beautiful risks, but they are risks. Especially I'm the one that likes risks and challenges, you know?
I know that also this job could be a risk for me, but risk means life.
**Interviewer:** You said beautiful risks.
**Alesandro:** Yes, they're beautiful because it means that you are doing new things, that you're doing things that you don't know. You have to put a piece of you or your brain inside new things, and you fight to understand the way that you can manage this new thing.
Imagine a new movie for me. So yes, it's a risk because it's like that you are in front of nothing at the beginning. But it's my job to create a bridge to start to put the first brick to make a new bridge.
It's like that you go in at the beginning; it's like maybe you don't know where you're going or you know well, but you can really tell everything about yourself because otherwise, it's going to be so boring.
So you try to build step by step this new thing, but it's a risk. You need the right people.
**Interviewer:** But taking huge risks.
**Alesandro:** Yes, because for me, for example, coming here, I didn't feel as a risk. I mean, people from the outside maybe thought there could be a risk because they think that it's very different.
It's another thing, and some others were thinking, "Oh, but it's going to be out, and he didn't do it." Yes, it's a risk; it's another risk. But how can you be happy without risks?
It's not possible, I think.
**Interviewer:** And I was saying beautiful risks because doing another thing, maybe a couture show, is going to be such an amazing trip, you know? You've never done that before.
**Alesandro:** Yes, I mean, I did many things, and I've been so accurate, you know, working on kind of crazy things that most people told me.
It's like that in Gucci, you did a kind of show sometimes, but I think that it's other things in the way you did your work on the very intense things that all the tailors and the people are working on the gowns and pieces and stuff.
The relation that you have with just one piece, you know, that is very fascinating to me.
**Interviewer:** It sounds so magical.
**Alesandro:** I think that it goes into the very deep part of this job, you know? There is imagination and creating and environments and places that became concrete in front of you, but after 15 minutes, they disappear.
You know, that is so beautiful. That's fashion.
**Interviewer:** Have you and Yakobo, in the process of making the decision to come here, have you and Yakobo got a plan together? Did you spend time together setting out a vision for what you want to do, or are you literally taking it one step at a time, brick by brick, as you said, working in the company?
**Alesandro:** Yes, I don't know. I think that we share the things in a very easy and natural way, you know? I think that we share a feeling. I mean, I think that he likes me; I like him.
It's like a love affair; it's going to be easy. You know, you can do many things in a very natural way every day, almost talking about this decision. He followed me, and I followed him in different ways, going on the same path.
But I think that we shared and respected each other also as friends before working together. We met each other working, and after Yakobo decided to change, I think that we remained friends.
We really like each other. It could be also very risky again when you have to do something with a friend.
**Interviewer:** Yes, I think that you have to be more careful. It's a big job; you know there is a lot of work. Keeping this precious thing alive could be a risk, could be a gift.
But for me, the important thing is the respect. Also, when you have a relationship with a partner, you know, if you respect the other person, it's going to be forever.
That's the first thing we want to make and create—a very healthy house place. So we are doing little steps. Maybe for us, from the outside, it's not little; it's our way to see the little things.
Maybe we are going fast because I can't wait some time, but we are trying to do it in the right way—very precise and building the right things.
Because I'm thinking about this place as a unique place, you know? This place has such a specific story; it's so unique.
**Interviewer:** What makes it unique?
**Alesandro:** That name, Valentino. It's a real name with a real life, with real love. He’s the one that created it and came from that couture.
Also, when I'm working by myself with the people of the studio, with Yakobo, there is always Monsieur Valentino somewhere with me. It's like that I'm thinking he's going to kill me or he's going to probably love to do the same.
Maybe not. I mean, there is always an open conversation with him because I can feel the things talking to me—dresses, stuff.
I think that he walked here many times, so you feel his presence always. Also, when I came here the first time, I came back home, and my partner, Vany, asked me, "How do you feel?"
I was like, "Unbelievable!" I really felt so deeply in touch with him. I felt also so lucky to be after him, and I felt also that he loved, in a way, the things that I loved, you know, in a very easy way.
Enjoying life, going in the archive, I saw life in the middle of layers of fabric and very light chiffon and CP, the sheen and embroidery—everything was embroidered, you know? Amazing, so crazy and beautiful, attractive.
I've been completely seduced, you know? And I was thinking also that all these beautiful things belong to people and life and conversation, words, thoughts, love, boats, apartments, you know, shaking hands, hugging people.
That's amazing. I mean, because probably when I was in Gucci, there wasn't such an amazing place. I mean, I think that Gucci is... I think that piece of my heart is still there.
It's a story of a family, and it's a story of an invention that is great, you know? It's a luggage good, and it was about bags and craftsmanship and the invention of such a smart family and man that crossed people.
But here, I really felt that I was inside kind of in bed with Valentino, you know? I felt so strong his presence. I felt also sometimes uncomfortable. Maybe I can touch it; maybe not. It's not mine, you know what I mean?
There is a beautiful sensation because it's a gift, you know? You like when in front of a relic that everybody can look from a distance. They were like, "Okay, you can touch it."
I was like, "Can I?" You have the privilege of... It's a privilege.
**Interviewer:** Have you talked to him or met him?
**Alesandro:** Yes, I met him in the past, yes, several times, but not now.
**Interviewer:** Yes, yes. But I'm thinking about him every day. You put out this pre-collection, which was a surprise for everybody.
You know, going back to what we were talking about earlier, people were saying, "Oh, this looks like Gucci." And I know in your conversation with Tim, he told me—because Tim and I were chatting about it—he said, "Actually, I think when Alesandro was at Gucci, he was doing Valentino at Gucci, and now he can do Valentino at Valentino."
Does that resonate with you, that idea that that conversation you had with Tim, that you were always very connected to the way Valentino kind of influenced Italian fashion?
**Alesandro:** Yes, I think that Valentino has been a big reference in building a ready-to-wear story.
How can I say? I mean, Gucci has now ready-to-wear; it's not a visual thing you can put. It's an empty box; you can put what you want. I mean, Tom—I mean, when we get back to Tom, you can say that's Gucci 100% because he did his vision.
He put his vision on the table, and I had no doubt that it was Gucci 100%. He created his movie, and we were all following that movie.
When I arrived in the company, I tried to create me with that leather goods brand that had a history, but we didn't have the faces and the costumes as a costume designer.
So I was like, "Me, I really think that Valentino, I mean, as a reference in the Italian history, it's really big." Because he’s the one that put that inside the fashion world—this chic and quirky and very precise Italian chic style of that kind of era, rich people.
Also, his legacy stayed all, I mean, years and years and years. He didn't really disappear; he stayed on the playground for years and years.
So when I went back searching for references, yes, I mean, I was looking at one of the most powerful aesthetics that was so good with the 1970s era, the golden era of Gucci.
Yes, and it was a little bit like Valentino. I mean, I saw a million images of that golden era, you know, because he’s been the one that started, I mean, before other Italian brands doing that job and infecting everything in a way.
So maybe I was doing a kind of Valentino. I like his aesthetic; I like the way that he went through that quirkiness. You know, I think that he did so many crazy things in the 70s and the 80s.
Every single lady, Italian lady, maybe not just Italian, was influenced by his aesthetic, meaning when you're thinking about something that is really precise and chic and, you know, kind of glamorous, you think about Valentino.
You know, it's like music. When you say the name, so when I was in Gucci, I mean, I like that era, and I like to mix and make the mash-up of this very crazy way to look.
I like to work in a contemporary way from the things of that era. So yes, when I came here, I thought that it was sitting on a treasure.
So maybe that's the reality that it's what you saw in the pre-collection. It's me because I'm sorry, but it's me. I don't need to be someone else, you know?
I think that a big designer or a good designer needs to be himself. Change is something, yes, it's just the beginning. You need to change a little bit because I don't want to be bored.
But yes, if you say yes, I can see that it's his hands working on the things and picking the things that he likes. Yes, it's a beginning. It's me and Valentino in a way.
Yes, I discover, you know, that it's so close to my sensibility. I'm also curious about myself. What is it going to be?
So you don't know. I'm the one that works always. Yes, I'm doing what I see because it's like that you have a vision. I see, but you don't know.
You see something because otherwise, you can't work. You see an image; you see, you know, that's the color; that's not the color; that's the shape; that's too long; it's too short; that's not the face; that’s not matching with the dress; she's not in the story; she's not the right daughter.
She's not, you know, because I'm working like this. But you don't know what is going to happen. I mean, many people and friends were like, "I'm so curious trying to understand what is going to be on the 29th of September."
What is going to be? It's going to be just when it's going to be. I don't know because I'm putting everything in the right place, trying to make it possible.
But in the end, you don't know because it's not a movie. A movie, I can cut. It's not a video; it's going to be like a theatrical thing.
You're going to put all the ingredients inside, and it's going to be real. You can see what you did just when the first person starts to walk outside, you know, the backstage on the catwalk.
You don't know, and that's the magic. I think that it's beautiful because it's the time that you feel that you were pregnant, but now the baby has a proper life, and you can be anymore in control.
It's outside; it's going to walk by himself or herself.
**Interviewer:** The other thing that's really different this time, Alesandro, with this new project is before there were no expectations.
Oh yes, right? You were unknown to the industry. You came from the background, from the behind the scenes. You put out this very bold, unexpected aesthetic for Gucci. You took a huge risk.
This time, it's different, right? This time, there's much more anticipation. Lots of people are asking you about September 29th. By the time this conversation comes out, it'll be afterwards.
But does it feel different this time? Do you feel more pressure because people are asking and wondering and speculating about what it's going to be?
**Alesandro:** Not really, no. Honestly, not really. Because it's more about me and myself, you know what I mean? It's more that I need to accomplish myself, you know, in an easy way.
I think that the more you're going to be happy with what you're doing, the more you're going to be happy with how the expectation is going to be from the outside connected with you.
Maybe yes, now the spotlight is bigger and bigger, you know? Especially after the pre-collection, I'm happy because they started to fight, you know, on social media.
I was like, "Now they did almost everything. I hope that the classroom is going to be quiet and keep the attention just to enjoying instead of crazy criticizing in that crazy way."
That was so fun, by the way. I know that everybody is waiting, but I hope that they're going to wait for something that is going to be just like a moment to enjoy fashion and things.
Maybe they're not going to like what I'm doing and what I will do, and maybe they're going to go crazy, or there are people. But working, it's not me that I do things because people expect something.
No, never. It's going to be very hard also, you know, because I don't know what people expect, what they want from me. Maybe they want me to change everything, you know?
But they must call someone else; they must talk with another person, you know? It's not real if I'm not going to feel myself in that creation.
So I'm working very disconnected from all these expectations. Also, because I don't want to say that I don't care because it's not true. I mean, you care in a way that you would love to share that beauty, and you would love also to have an open conversation in a good way with people that criticize you.
It's my job. I mean, there is always something, you know? And I learn to be disconnected from these kinds of things.
**Interviewer:** Yes, for the first. I wanted to conclude with just a little bit of advice for everyone who's listening.
You know, it's really back to this idea of achieving success. It takes getting through challenges and overcoming obstacles and dealing with unexpected situations.
You know, for people out there who look up to you, see Alesandro as this, in quotation marks, successful person. What advice do you have for young creative people that want to be in tune with their creativity, who want to achieve and be themselves in this industry that's so tough but also want to be successful?
**Alesandro:** Yes, it's a part of the way that you can be using the word successful—being yourself, fighting for the things that you believe in.
For me, the word that really translates the way that you can be happy with yourself and, so from maybe successful with you, is caring about your passion.
There is a kind of love and something that you can live without, you know? It's a very interesting thing that makes everything move, you know? Passion is something that makes you work so hard, that makes you feel so alive, and makes you fight and put all your energy into the things that you're doing.
If you really feel that you have a passion for something, I don't know, whatever you want, you have to believe and live for this passion. It's such a gift to have a passion.
When people say, "You are obsessed; you are like crazy to do this," me, when you're a kid and you feel that there is something that moves your heart somewhere, I don't know where—follow it.
Follow it if it's crazy. Follow your instinct. You are a wild animal, so let your stomach, body, skin talk to you.
And no matter if it's going to be crazy hard, impossible, nothing is impossible. Everything is possible. Also, because you need to be happy, and following your passion, you're going to be happy, I think.
**Interviewer:** And what do you do when things go wrong? I also talk to people about figuring out what your passion is and aligning your passion with your skills and your talents and your purpose.
That's the right path. But even if you have all of those things, along the way, you're going to face really hard times.
How do you summon up the energy, courage, drive to keep going?
**Alesandro:** I mean, I can feel it that sometimes. I met so many young people, and I'm getting a big kid, so I remember well when I was young and I came from an environment.
There was so far working in fashion; it was just a dream—maybe more than a dream because sometimes you can sleep and dream something. I couldn't sometimes because it was so far from my life.
But I had the strength to wait, also working and following, as you said, because sometimes the young generation gets confused, maybe going through this new language that social media tries to suggest you that you can do something in a very quick way.
It's not quick; no, it's not quick. It's like if you want to follow your passion, it's like religion. I mean, a God needs your time, and it's got to be beautiful to follow that God.
I mean, every time you're going to meet that job, that passion, it's going to be amazing. It's like a love affair. I mean, after years and years, maybe it's going to be easy to find your place, but you have to wait.
It's not going to be quick because sometimes they get confused. They think that, "Okay, I worked for three years, and nothing happened." Three years is nothing.
I mean, maybe 15, 20 could be a time. And enjoy all the things that you can be capable of doing. Enjoy the things that you are not doing. Enjoy yourself because you are not just the things that you did, but also the things that you didn't do.
Did you decide to, you know, that were not you, that maybe they went wrong? No, it's you, and it's beautiful. It's interesting.
So you're saying that part of the path to finding that success is knowing what is you and what isn't you.
**Alesandro:** Yes, because you are also the things that you are not doing. It's like that people saying, "Oh, it's such a shame that I didn't do this." No, it's not a shame; it's you.
It's just you that didn't do those things. You didn't want to; you became a different person because you went wrong with something or you didn't decide to do this.
I think that we must care about all the things that make us the person that we are, you know? And in this box, you have also something that went wrong that is an experience.
Maybe you thought there was you, but it's not. So I like myself also for the things that I did wrong.
That I like more now that I'm a big boy. I like more and more the Alesandro that did so many wrong things.
**Interviewer:** It's so sweet—a big boy who is still a kid and still trusts his instinct. Thank you so much for sharing so many vulnerable stories and advice because I think we really need it right now.
You and I were just talking about how challenging the world is and how challenging the industry is. So I'm really grateful that you've been so open.
**Alesandro:** Thank you, Imran. It's always a pleasure. Nice conversation. Thank you.
**Interviewer:** Thank you so much.