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In a sharp deviation from the visual standard of communication in the fashion industry, A#20 curator Pierpaolo Piccioli looks towards the world of literature to re-envision the method in which fashion communicates, establishing Valentino as a champion of text-based campaigns. Their latest campaign, Valentino The Narratives II, marks a continued commitment to the fields of arts and culture as well as an embrace of individuality by fostering a polyphonic conversation featuring a diverse selection of global voices. In this second iteration of the Narratives, Valentino invites 17 renowned authors to present their literary offerings, united under the theme of ‘love’ in all its forms and meanings.

The 17 writers are American queer activist Alok Vaid-Menon, Bahraini philosopher Amia Srinivasan, Italian-American author André Aciman, Pulitzer prize winner Andrew Sean Greer, New York Times bestseller Brit Bennett, American humorist David Sedaris, cult Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland, American poet Elizabeth Acevedo, American model and author Emily Ratajkowski, American novelist Fatima Farheen Mirza, British playwright Hanif Kureishi, French-Morocco Prix Goncourt winner Leila Slimani, American author Melissa Broder, Pulitzer prize winner Michael Cunningham, Japanese best-seller Mieko Kawakami, Turkish writer Murathan Mungan and South Korean author Serang Chung.

From Aciman’s coming-of-age fiction Call Me By Your Name (2007) to Chung’s science-fiction fantasy School Nurse Ahn Eunyoung (2020), Acevedo’s poetic exploration of the Afro-Latin American experience to Kureishi’s realist screenplays imbued with references of an Anglo-Pakistani upbringing, the contributors differ in genre and style yet put forward equally compelling examinations of the nuance and poignancy of love. For each contribution in this ambitious portfolio, words by these 17 writers are graphically presented in various typographic and chromatic combinations that ebb and flow with the varying rhythms of their works.

The unabridged version of these narratives can be further explored in Valentino’s online experience.

Works by Michael Cunningham and Leila Slimani, as seen above, grace the opening pages of A Magazine No.23 Curated By Francesco Risso, 2022.

Further Reading:

The Country of Others – Leila Slimani (2020)

Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris (2002)

The Hours – Michael Cunningham (1998)

The Buddha of Suburbia – Hanif Kureishi (1990)

The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett (2020)

Less – Andrew Sean Greer (2017)

A Place For Us – Fatima Farheen Mirza (2018)

Beyond The Gender Binary – Alok Vaid-Menon (2020)

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture – Douglas Coupland (1991)

Call Me By Your Name – André Aciman (2007)