What Valentino gets with Rosy Zhao
Valentino named Chinese actress Rosy Zhao, also known as Zhao Lusi, a global brand ambassador on November 10. Her drama audience already travels beyond China, and the first house stills put her next to Sombr and Jolin on Michele's roster.
Anika Rao
Maison Valentino named Chinese actress Rosy Zhao its global brand ambassador on November 10, after months of Early Spring 2027 looks and a Harper's Bazaar China cover that already had fans treating the deal as half-done. Zhao, born Zhao Lusi in Chengdu in 1998, told the house that Alessandro Michele's mix of elegance, romance, and strength has always felt personal. Valentino says it wants her for younger audiences in China and across Asia. The practical gain is a drama star whose series already travel outside China, and whose airport photos can empty a shoe shelf before the weekend is over.
That overseas following built up years before the Valentino reds. The Romance of Tiger and Rose made her a Southeast Asian favorite in 2020. Love Like the Galaxy, opposite Wu Lei in 2022, deepened the English-subtitled audience. Hidden Love, opposite Chen Zheyuan in 2023, went further. Youku ranked it among the top Chinese dramas for overseas launches that year, with momentum in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand, and Netflix carried it into diaspora living rooms. A Thailand social-listening poll later put Zhao first among Chinese actresses there. Michele's roster already has music and red-carpet faces. Zhao adds the viewers who stay with her from one series to the next and then go looking for whatever she wore between shoots.
North American readers can sample the two titles that travel best. Checked November 11, Hidden Love is on Netflix in the United States and Canada. Love Like the Galaxy is free with ads on Rakuten Viki in the U.S., with WeTV also listing the full run. Watch either before the fuller Michele campaign arrives if you want the screen work behind the appointment.
Her first Valentino image is a studio portrait. She wears a cherry-red jacket with black trim, a black bag strap over one shoulder, and heavy pearl jewelry against a pale backdrop. It is built to travel fast on Weibo and Instagram. Compare that with other ambassadors in this cycle. Sombr's Pre-Fall 2026 campaign, shot by Johnny Dufort inside Cy Twombly's palazzo outside Rome, puts the singer in art-world rooms with embroidered clothes and untamed hair. Jolin Tsai's Michele-era Global Brand Ambassador work, photographed by John Yuyi, is sharper and more graphic, with silhouettes cut against saturated color for the Interferenze season. Freen Sarocha, Valentino's first Thai woman ambassador, has mostly shown up through Paris front rows and red carpets rather than a single studio still. Zhao's opening portrait looks more like a China-market launch image than Sombr's palazzo story, which tracks with how fans already treat her. They call her a sold-out queen. In June, Xiaohongshu users nicknamed a pair of Rockstud Mary Janes "Zhao Lusi shoes" after an airport look, and stock got hard to find in China.
We asked Valentino's press office for approved campaign assets beyond the announcement portrait. Until those arrive, the house is leading with the drama following and the red-and-pearl still. Readers who want the screen work behind the deal can start with Hidden Love or Love Like the Galaxy tonight.
