MILAN — At at time when attention spans are constantly distracted by the flow of images, information and digital diversions, Alessandro Michele is urging us to press the pause button.

Unveiling his advertising campaign for Valentino’s fall 2025 collection — which other brands call pre-fall — Michele penned a letter, dubbed “The Poetics of Everyday,” acknowledging the current “era of violent uproar, of shouting images, of words chasing after other words without ever taking root. Such overblown turmoil oversaturates our gaze, producing a solid crisis of perception.”

In his opinion, this requires returning to a more long-lasting gaze, “capable of lingering upon the infinitely small, on seemingly insignificant gestures, on those everyday routines that connect us with the pattern of life.”

The campaign photographed and directed by Glen Luchford presents a series of images capturing simple daily — and also child-like — moments in front of an ice cream parlor, trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube, playing with a yo-yo, and, naturally, eating an ice cream. The images have a still-life quality as the models are caught in mid-action.

“Re-enchanting the everyday, trying to inhabit it poetically is not an easy task. An anomaly is needed, a disruption in the frantic rush to do. We need to slow down and stop. That’s why I imagined a static point of view that may scan the poetical density of what nestles in the ordinary,” writes Michele. “A fixed camera focused on life, as it happens. A door opens, a street, a bar. And then: ancient and minute gestures within mornings that seem to be all alike.”

The cast includes: Kai Schreiber, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber’s daughter, who debuted as a model on the Valentino runway on March 9 in Paris; Scarlett White (Jack White and Karen Elson’s daughter); Amelia Gray (Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna’s daughter); actress Sophie Thatcher; Lorenzo Zurzolo; Marie Sophie Wilson; Yuri Fukuhara; Sanique; Yilan Hua; Aimee Patricia Byrne; Yar Aguer; Luukas Niskanen; Bukwop; Suyong Jung; Hank Akerlund; Glory, and Franklin Smith.

“What I’m proposing is to overcome the anesthetization of the gaze, dwelling in the silent twist and turns of the days, welcoming the magic of the existing with kindness, choosing to stay in touch with what is alive,” continued Michele in his statement. “The everyday is not a backdrop that animates only when the extraordinary steps in. Rather, it’s the secret architecture that supports our presence in the world: a frame of glows and joyful epiphanies enshrined in the little or nothing of our ordinariness.”

Here, Michele’s responses to WWD questions elaborating on his ideas of daily life.

WWD: What are the activities that represent daily life moments for you? Have they changed since you became an established designer?

Alessandro Michele: Taking long walks is the main activity in my daily life. This has not changed at all, I have the same habits as before. The difference is that now, during my walks, I meet people who love me and stop me, but my daily life has not changed because I don’t want to change my life. I like the small daily actions. I think the universe lives in small things.

WWD: How do you slow down the frenzy of your days? What helps you?

A.M.: The people I love and my friends and colleagues. I don’t create frenzy in my daily life and I focus on what I like, on my commitments, trying to unload stress and frenzy.

WWD: Was there a particular reason or moment that prompted you to focus on this theme for the campaign?