Valentino to produce "Vaccinated" hoodies

A month ago, Pierpaolo Piccioli, the creative director of Valentino, posted a selfie on Instagram of himself wearing a black hoodie with a red Valentino “V” logo on the chest. Rather than have the brand name Valentino under the V it said “Vaccinated.” The sweatshirt was originally thought to be one off, but an outpouring of demand from celebrities, to editors, and top fashion stylists begging Piccioli to produce the sweatshirt.

Dreams do come true sometimes, because now a slightly elevated version of the sweatshirt will be available on Valentino’s website, with 100 percent of proceeds going to UNICEF to support its work with the World Health Organization’s Covax program, which is helping to provide vaccine access to countries where it’s not widely available. The news was reported by The New York Times.

Producing this sweatshirt wasn’t easy, primarily because Valentino nor Piccioli made the sweatshirt in the first place. The sweatshirt Piccioli posted his selfie in was produced by a Los Angeles-based company called Cloney whose specialty is putting their own spin on the city’s cultural references from fashion to celebrities and making graphics for T-shirts, sweats, and baseball caps.

Now, most companies would’ve approached Cloney with a cease-and-desist letter, but, rather, Piccioli, who discovered the hoodies, decided to buy out the remaining stock, gave away a few to some of his celebrity friends, including Lady Gaga. Piccioli then got in touch with Cloney’s founder, Duke Christian George III, who was excited to hear from him. George started Cloney in 2019.

Cloney and Piccioli reached an agreement that Valentino would now produce the hoodies in its factories to its luxury standards. The final product would feature both logos and be a Valentino x Cloney collaboration.