Sombr fronts the Valentino Pre-Fall 2026 ad campaign, shot by Johnny Dufort inside Cy Twombly’s palazzo in Bassano in Teverina, a villa the artist purchased in 1975 and used as a creative sanctuary for over thirty years.

For Michele, the shoot is rooted in a specific thread of Valentino history: in 1968, Henry Clarke photographed Valentino Garavani’s white collection inside Twombly’s Roman apartment. Shooting inside another of the artist’s homes some fifty years later is like tuning into a frequency that never really stopped broadcasting.

For Sombr, it’s just the latest stop in what’s shaping up to be a very good year.