From haute couture and fast fashion to your grandmother’s craft cupboard – crochet is everywhere right now. But it’s not only crochet: quilting, lace, needlepoint and other sewing crafts are having their moment too. If these techniques can be sold at haute couture prices, why are we seeing craft fashion sold for next to nothing by some retailers? Let’s talk about it.
Alessandro Michele and his Valentino couture debut
Famous for his “freaky, geeky” creative direction at Gucci, Alessandro Michele’s haute couture debut (29.01.2025) at Valentino Spring / Summer 2025 is all about maximalism, history, and rich details.
Haute couture is high-end fashion custom-made to a client’s measurements. It’s known for time-intensive techniques, often executed by hand using luxurious materials. Rome-based designer Alessandro was appointed the creative director of Valentino in April 2024.
For his debut haute couture collection, Alessandro Michele presented 48 looks
A thousand hours of craftsmanship
Some dresses in this Valentino collection took over 1,000 hours to make, using vintage lace, needlepoint, and quilting. The 48th and final look? A regal dress made entirely from crochet.
The 48th and final look was a regal dress made entirely from crochet
Handmade, no shortcuts
Unlike knitting, it is impossible to crochet using a machine. Every stitch must be made by hand, one by one. By showcasing a crochet dress, Michele emphasises that the collection was made by hand – requiring patience, time, skill and craftsmanship.
Crochet can only be done by hand, not by a machine
The crochet comeback
Crochet has become a popular hobby over the past few years. This began during the pandemic when online tutorials and extra time fuelled the trend.
From hobby to hype
Following the trend, crochet clothing started appearing in high street and fast fashion stores. This should raise alarm bells. If a technique cannot be made by machine and is beautiful and unique enough for haute couture, you can be sure it cannot be ethically produced at low prices.
Some of the dresses in the Valentino collection took over 1,000 hours to make
Illusion that fashion is cheap
When time-intensive crochet garments are sold cheaply by fashion brands, our perception of what clothing should cost is distorted. Fashion can be cheap because the true costs are externalised including:
- Environmental cost of unsustainable resource extraction from nature
- Social cost of underpaying garment workers and forcing them into poverty.
Undervalued women’s work
Crochet and sewing have long been dismissed as “grandma hobbies,” instead of recognised as highly skilled crafts that take an entire lifetime to perfect. This cultural bias has led to a global garment industry that underpays its workers – most of whom are women in the Global South.
Alessandro Michele says, “The seamstresses are like fairies and elves”
Subversive stitching
In a world that continuously undervalues women’s work, Alessandro Michele’s choice to showcase crochet in the haute couture context is subversive.
His Valentino show recognises that in a world of mechanisation, the symbol of true luxury is making clothing by hand, in a way that honours and respects the maker.
It’s not only crochet: quilting, lace, needlepoint and other sewing crafts are having their moment too
Last words
“The seamstresses should be protected like leopards, because they do extraordinary things with a fantastic ease.” – Michele Alessandro, creative director for Valentino.
Alessandro Michele takes a bow at the end of his debut haute couture Valentino show
Watch party
The full Valentino haute couture show – skip the intro and start watching at 24:00:
Sources
Credits
All images from Vogue Runway
