Elle Fanning has simply never looked better.
Last night, the actor—who stars in A Complete Unknown—attended the 2025 National Board of Review Gala dressed in a look from Alessandro Michele’s pre-fall 2025 collection for Valentino. Fanning’s empire-waisted dress featured a periwinkle spaghetti strap top affixed with a floppy, rhinestoned bow and a pale yellow tiered skirt. She wore the semi-sheer pastel gown with a faux fur caban coat slouched elegantly around her shoulders, periwinkle heels, and a resplendent ruby Cartier bracelet.
This isn’t the first time Fanning has donned a piece from Michele’s still-fresh residency at Valentino. For the 2024 Governors Awards she chose a piece from his spring 2025 offering, a sheer, mint green dress with a plunging neckline, faux fur trim, and silver beaded embellishments—worn with a matching capelet.
Whether she’s embracing the masculine in Bottega Veneta suiting or the feminine in Vivienne Westwood, Fanning (with an assist from stylist Samantha McMillen) is a consistent red carpet standout. But she may have found her perfect match in Michele’s Valentino.
The 26-year-old actor has grown up on red carpets, gracefully transitioning from cute kid to sophisticated adult. But, as Fanning reminds us in her ornate pastel-hued Valentinos, she is still a young woman, and there is no need to dress for a season of life she isn’t in yet. And, as he demonstrated during his Gucci tenure, and now at Valentino, Michele knows better than anyone how to make clothing for lively, youthful spirits. Elle Fanning seems to be the perfect embodiment of that.
