Valentino Haute Couture, Spring-Summer 2026 photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com Valentino Haute Couture, Spring-Summer 2026 photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.comArchduchess Sophie Habsburg of Austria, a muse to the designer in the 1980s, praised his ‘genius’ in a 2023 interview with Tatler. Valentino Haute Couture, Spring-Summer 2026 photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com Valentino Haute Couture, Spring-Summer 2026 photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.comOf course, for Michele - the whimsically-outré wunderkind of former Gucci fame - those codes first instilled by Garavani were already deeply entrenched in his style psyche. For Spring-Summer 2026, the 1960s graphic, chevron prints; the flowing, ephemeral beauty of 1970s-era silhouettes; and the decadently ruffled and draped silken gowns of the 1980s were abundant throughout the line. Valentino Haute Couture, Spring-Summer 2026 photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com Valentino Haute Couture, Spring-Summer 2026 photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.comHis rendezvous for his guests - which included Dakota Johnson and Kirstin Dunst - was harmoniously historic yet contemporary too. Instead of sending his crystal-ladened models down the catwalk single file as is traditionally more customary during Couture Week, he revisited a forgotten gem of French cinema history; the Kaiserpanorama.