Fashion met philosophy in a spirited dialogue at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris, as Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele and philosopher Emanuele Coccia reunited on stage to mark the French release of their collaborative book The Life of Shapes: Philosophy of Re-enchantment.
The event drew a full house as the two long-time interlocutors explored the intersections of style, identity, and human expression. Though they hail from different disciplines, Michele and Coccia have found a shared language—one rooted in a belief that fashion is far more than surface.
Michele, who discovered philosophy in his 40s through his partner, academic Giovanni Attili, described the field as a revelatory companion to his design work. “Fashion, like philosophy, is about life,” he told the audience. “It speaks a language that felt intuitively right to me—the language fashion has always needed.”
He acknowledged initial skepticism from the fashion press when he first publicly connected his design practice to philosophical inquiry. “Some thought I was mad,” he said with a laugh. “But I came to realize that fashion has always had a place in philosophical discourse. Philosophy is a universal language—one that touches every part of human activity.”
Michele recalled his first exposure to Coccia’s lecture on Lucentezza (“Sparkle”) as a moment of instant intellectual connection. Their subsequent “date,” arranged by Attili, blossomed into ongoing conversations that deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coccia described their exchanges as a kind of “reciprocal psychoanalysis,” blurring the lines between analyst and subject. Their book, published by HarperCollins in Italy and Flammarion in France, captures this fluid exchange through a typographic dialogue—each voice printed in a distinct font.
The core of The Life of Shapes is a provocative thesis: unlike other art forms, fashion demands daily engagement. “You can observe a painting or a film from a distance,” said Coccia. “But fashion requires embodiment. It transforms your body into a medium—into a work of art others must perceive and interact with.”
Because of this, opting out is not an option, Coccia added. Even rejecting fashion makes a statement. “Your clothes always say something, whether you like it or not. Every morning becomes a kind of presentation about yourself.”
Despite this weight, both men emphasized the joy and play inherent in dressing. Coccia, known for his evolving personal style and ties to fashion luminaries like Azzedine Alaïa and Carla Sozzani, wore bright Puma MB.04 LaMelo Ball Scooby Doo sneakers—prompting comments from moderator Jean-Marie Durand. Michele, in contrast, donned subdued brown Sebago boots but offset them with ornate Baroque jewelry layered over a tracksuit and workwear.
“I need periodic metamorphoses,” said Coccia. “It’s a form of infinite freedom. Identity isn’t fixed; it’s something we must constantly refine and transform.”
Surprisingly, both were cautious about the increasing institutionalization of fashion through museum exhibitions. Michele argued that garments lose their essence when confined behind glass.
“To take a dress that belonged to Greta Garbo and place it in a case is, in a way, to murder it,” he said. “Clothes are meant to be inhabited. Only then do they retain their power.”
For Michele, fashion is a tool of transformation—a medium through which people can embody alternative selves. “It saved my life,” he admitted. “Fashion is a language. Sometimes it writes a shopping list. Sometimes it writes a poem.”
Their discussion offered a compelling case for fashion not as frivolous ornament, but as a vital human language—one rich in meaning, movement, and metamorphosis.
