I Love a Menswear Blazer That Can Also Give Me an Existential Crisis
In a week overflowing with anxiety-inducing nightmares, this Valentino item turned out to be what consumed my thoughts and haunted my dreams the most.
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The fun thing about fashion is that it can transform us into completely different people—like a villain or a Teletubby, or someone in the throes of a full-blown breakdown muttering questions like “Why are we here” and “What does it all even mean?!” I’ve been a villain at points in my life and in many ways, a Teletubby too—but never have I ever observed an item of clothing and felt my brain immediately plummet into the depths of panic the way it did when I beheld this Valentino blazer.
Milan Men’s Fashion Week wrapped up on Monday, and the standout of the shows—at least for me—was this singular, basic black blazer emblazoned with the quote (warning? threat? prophecy?): “We are so old, we have become young again.” In a week overflowing with anxiety-inducing nightmares, it turned out to be this one item of clothing that has consumed my thoughts, haunted my dreams, and sent me spiraling into an existential crisis.
Hanya Yanagihara’s fans might immediately recognize the quote from A Little Life—a book I’ve yet to read, largely due to the fact that my friends who have read it always tell me things like it “destroyed them,” they have “never been the same,” and they “kind of regret reading it.” But Pierpaolo Piccioli, the creative director of Valentino, had a slightly less metaphysical idea behind the brand’s first menswear show since 2020: “Hanya’s novel has a lot to do with this collection,” he wrote on Instagram. (Guests were invited with a copy of the book!) “The striking force of vulnerability and the fierceness of emotions that frame this young men life is something that moved me and pushed me to reflect on how work must still be done to overcome cliches and gender stereotypes,” he continued.