The invitation for the Valentino show this season came with a packet of glow sticks. It was one way to fight your way through the ambient gloom.

Creative director Alessandro Michele has been struggling to make sense of his job at a time when many people are simply struggling to survive. He came across a letter written by Pier Paolo Pasolini during World War II, in which he described the joy of seeing fireflies.

For Michele, it was a signal to try to recapture the magic he felt as a young designer.

“When I first started to work, I felt that there was really a spell that was almost everywhere: on my table, in my pencil, in every meeting with all the amazing people that I met,” he said in a preview. “I would love, in a way, to make it again as it was, because it was really incredible.”

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