Valentino Vans Are Coming – And They’re Already The Most Anticipated Trainers Of The Year

It's almost a year since Alessandro Michele joined Valentino as its creative director and fashion critics are still trying to decide whether or not his vision is Valentino enough for the fashion house (or whether it's too Michele to distinguish it from his work at Gucci). Either way, the designer presented his autumn/winter 2025 collection in Paris over the weekend, which featured a set built to look like a gigantic bathroom, entirely covered in Valentino red tiles. As always, there was a lot to look at, both in terms of the setting and the clothes themselves, but one stand-out element of the collection was the shoes. More specifically, it was the Vans, peeking out from underneath slouchy trousers, jeans and a lot of lace.

In his inimitable way, Michele was unveiling a new collaboration between Valentino and Vans which, if the last couple of days are anything to go by, is already one of the most anticipated launches of 2025. Of course, it's just like Michele to land on a collab with a brand everyone's excited about right now – this is the man, after all, who was the brains behind Gucci's sell-out collections with The North Face and adidas.

While they may evoke feelings of nostalgia, Vans have been back in the spotlight recently, seen on celebrities from Harry Styles (at London Fashion Week) to Emily Ratajkowski, the proud owner of several pairs. Typically, Michele is perfectly in step with the zeitgeist and, if you needed any further proof of that fact, the level of hype around Valentino x Vans is already staggering.

Details of the launch have not yet been revealed, although the two silhouettes seen during the Valentino show were the Vans Authentic and Vans Classic. So, we must all wait to hear when, exactly, we can all start wearing Valentino's Vans. Until then, I imagine the hype will only continue to build.

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Hannah Banks-Walker is Grazia's head of fashion commerce. She has previously written for the likes of Harper's Bazaar, The Financial Times, Glamour, Stylist, The Telegraph, Red, i-D and The Pool on everything from fashion to curly hair (hi!) to the patriarchy. Not necessarily in that order. Find her on Instagram and Twitter. But please don't look for her MySpace profile, which until now was the last time she wrote about herself in the third person.