Florence Pugh is the new face of Valentino

Florence Pugh is the new face of Valentino.

In a campaign photographed in New York by the one-and-only Steven Meisel, the actor posed alongside various Valentino handbags showing a range of strong emotions from something zealous to pure shock and plain fun, flaunting her talents in inhabiting different characters. Valentino calls the campaign an “Encyclopedia of Feelings.” 

“Truly an honour to continue creating art with my family at Valentino. Working with talented people is one thing, but to work with talented people who are great friends feeds the soul! And this campaign truly did feed the soul. Thank you for letting me be me,” she wrote in an Instagram post announcing the news. “@pppiccioli cheers and love and so much thanks to the past, the current and the future. I’m fucking proud of this one.”

Now, on May 1 she is making the Valentino relationship official and will attend her first Met Gala with Pierpaolo Piccioli, the creative director of Valentino, not just as his date, but as the star of the coming Rockstud bag campaign.

That makes them the latest “It” couple in the pop culture round-robin otherwise known as the celebrity-fashion dating game, an increasingly frenetic sport in which allegiances changes with dizzying speed.

Zendaya, last year’s face of the Valentino Pink PP campaign, is now at Louis Vuitton. Kim Kardashian, late of Balenciaga, is suddenly in Dolce & Gabbana ads. Such whiplash-inducing switches from one style to another can make it hard to believe that the transaction is anything other than a cynical bargain between fame and money (as opposed to, say, an expression of actual personal taste). Perhaps not unexpectedly, however, Ms. Pugh and Mr. Piccioli have some thoughts about shilling, style, and what it all means.