The Cliffwalks of Folégandros – Paris FW SS26 Valette Studio
A conversation with Pierre-François Valette, Designer
Located in the 11th arrondissement of Paris and not that far from the Canal Saint Martin, Endymion is at the Maison de Metallos, born as instrument factory in the 19th century, which was the location from 26th to the 28th of June for a showroom and runway show during Paris Fashion Week Men for Valette Studio. We are lucky to have a chat with Pierre-François Valette, the designer presenting his latest spring-summer 2026 collection.
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Endymion: How long have you been designing?
PFV
“Valette Studio was launched in 2020. Before that, I was at Saint-Laurent, which was just the beginning, where I won the Saint-Laurent competition.”
Pierre-François explains that it was not something planned at the beginning to start his own studio and atelier, but that he just wanted to make a collection. But now the focus is on Valette Studio’s strategic development; his teams are very familiar with art direction, allowing pyramid-shaped delegation to become more and more a part of the creation process. For a brand that aims to scale, this is very practical because the production can be streamlined.
Creating beautiful clothes remains the primary factor for a brand to thrive and for Valette Studio the goal is:
“… to sell clothes, so to dress people. But my ambition is to bring back the “discourse” around clothing, though, because I love all the brands and everything people do, but the talks around the clothing is important as people are making big claims: clothing is social, too.”
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Endymion: What is the working culture of a tailor-made brand?
PFV
For Pierre-François, owning a company is not only about being in demand all the time. It is also about a company hiring people, and this is how he explains the victory of the Ministry of Culture competition, where Valette Studio was certified ‘made in Paris’. And now, another final is the new target, the new prize: the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris.
“If I like that the brand is growing? It was more fun when there were two of us. There was no stress because when your teams grow, it is just challenging, but Hugo (PFV’s partner in the creation of Valette Studio) says to me – ah, you look stressed! -. I can confirm that it is just an illusion, as I am not stressed, and no one is. Everyone has to accept it to stay on track.”
What is true is that when doing tailor-made products, …
“… we have no room for error. Production can either be simple, but everything is visible and errors can cost on reputation”.
As long as there are a lot of people with ideas who want to manufacture, the workshop has to run at full capacity. Valette Studio is learning how to continue with custom-made product.
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Endymion: For the Berlin theme (the collection from last winter), a lot of black, and a variety of grey, and white were chosen. Can we see the continuation of what happened last season in this summer collection, or how do you get inspiration for colors?
PFV
“The aim was to keep the same code, so yes, this is the continuation.”
There were still the dark glasses. However, this time, the idea for the ‘Berlin man’ from last winter is a trip from Germany to Greece, and precisely to Folégandros. Pierre François loves the Greek islands because …
“… there’s a very dark sea, and at the same time, there are lots of colors, and the sunsets take the whole scene”.
The designing artist tells how for him …
“… the island rises very quickly in height, and it is always windy. There are no boats on the Aegean Sea, and the sea is not turquoise blue; when you see it from afar, it’s black. This is why it worked well with this theme, and the touch of the sun fulfills the scene.”
And thus it appears that in the same way Yves Saint-Laurent used to draw inspiration from the colors and impressions in Marrakech, Morocco in the seventies, Pierre-François Valette draws inspiration from Folégandros, Greece today.
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Collection
The collection is a comeback to the very beginning of Valette Studio. We can see a jacket from the first collection, lengthened and much more structured. From the pants to the long trench coat; from the safari jacket to the jumpsuit, the items are throwbacks to the past and enable a variety of outfit combinations, depending on how you arrange them together. There is a distinct retro look, eighties almost.
Valette imposes a creative consistency and a clear design language. The trench coat is a continuation of the garments presented in January, with an add-on: the sleeves. Also, shoulder pads are often present in this collection, on shirts and shirtdresses. This detail adds perhaps functional and stylistic elements. Shoulder pads give structure and power to garments. Their use in shirts and shirtdresses suggests a play on androgyny and empowerment, echoing 1980s influences but possibly recontextualized for today’s sensibilities.
The style in the summer collection includes a lot of stripes, and it looks very edgy this time. Valette had striped shirts with polka-dot ties, and it presents a reminiscence of the 70s and 80s as the designer loves to remind us of an era when people wore more suits for daily habits.
“When I launched Valette, everyone wore jogging pants, people said to me – what are you going to do with the jackets? – well, now, people wear more shirts”
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Endymion: If we look at the movies, it also reminds us of spy style: the dark sunglasses and black details…
“The glasses are part of the styling. They give an attitude. The dresses have black shoes with black glasses, and there was something very graphic about them. I find that glasses, ahead with the dark inspiration, from the dark shadowed sea in Greece, conveys something quite frightening, too.”
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Shoes
From the glasses to the shoulders, a third element took the scene at the Valette Studio presentation last winter: the shoes. Despite that this is not from their own production, the choice of the shoes is fundamental for the presentation of new tailored pieces.
Thus, a collaboration with Christian Louboutin for the winter collection drew a nice outcome as this one was perfectly matched: the suits, black baguette pants, and the shoes, with the red sole standing out perfectly against the black outfit.
For the summer collection the collaboration with Adieu has been felt as amazing too. The chunky shoe base with flip-flops allowed the feet to be visible.
We leave the final word to Pierre-François:
“Glasses are part of the styling, but it is the shoulder and the shoe, you know. It changes the whole storytelling of the collection.”
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- Friday 27 June – Paris FW 2025, by Amadeo for Endymion Zine
- Photos courtesy Valette Studio
