Giving Good SHADE

Here's the story of how an entry-level accessory turned into the ultimate luxury score.

- BY ROXANNE ADAMIYATT

It may have been hard to notice it at Valentino’s fall/winter 2025 show in Paris earlier this year—what with the dramatic vermilion set recreating a Lynchian fantasy of a public bathroom and the swirl of 80 looks sent down the runway to a Lana Del Rey soundtrack—but half the outfits were adorned with eyewear, primarily sunglasses. Mere afterthoughts to an ensemble these were not. The oval wraparound styles, in vintage-inspired palettes of cream, navy, and burgundy and stamped with a conspicuous V, were indispensable elements of creative director Alessandro Michele’s maximalist reimagining of the maison’s codes. They were vital for grounding the glamour in a functional context while establishing a cohesive aesthetic, and also for, as the Valentino team told T&C, “blending and merging different conversations: the dialogue with the past and the intimate connection with the objects as an attitude; a celebration of hyper- and purposeless beauty; and fashion as a great vehicle for freedom.”

That is a lot of meaning to pack into a piece of acetate. But Michele, ever the shrewd observer of fashion’s changing whims and caprices, may have been on to something. Sunglasses, long taken for granted as an entry-level accessory, are gaining new prominence—and perhaps even single-handedly keeping balance sheets healthy.