Alessandro Michele dug into the Italian house’s 100 year-strong archives to present a stripped-back collection that paid tribute to its colourful history (and yes, Demna Gvasalia got involved too)
Gucci shows are always *a moment* but the label’s latest outing was an even bigger one than usual. Kicking off the Italian house’s 100th birthday celebrations, the internet rumour mill went into overdrive earlier this week – as it so often does – as news of a casual little collab between Alessandro Michele and Demna Gvasalia flooded the TL. Turns out, the behemoth Kering brands really had been cooking something up, with the fruits of their labour making their debut on the runway this very afternoon. If you didn’t have your eyes glued to IG live as the show played out – seriously, where were you? – there’s no need to panic: we’ve got everything you need to know covered right here.
THE INVITE ENCOURAGED US TO ENGAGE OUR BRAINS
A year of slobbing in front of the telly and dredging the depths of Netflix has taken its toll, with our brains left feeling less than limber thanks to all the audiovisual garbage we’ve been consuming. Good news then that Alessandro had the antidote to that – with editors receiving an uber-cute and kitschy Gucci-fied puzzle book in the post. Filled with crosswords, word searches, riddles, and sudoku, picture your granny’s fave dog-eared holiday must-have – but make it fashion – and you’ve pretty much got the idea.
THE SOUNDTRACK? A GUCCI MEGA MIX
Gucci’s had a fair few shout-outs throughout musical history, with the likes of Lil Nas X, A$AP Rocky, Migos, and Kreayshawn’s 00s earworm “Gucci Gucci” (duh!) name-checking the legendary brand. It seems like Alessandro’s been keeping track of who’s said what, given this season the designer curated a Gucci-heavy playlist featuring tracks by Lil Pump, Rick Ross, the iconique (ironique?) Bhad Bhabie, and more. Bangers only, basically.
THE LABEL LANDED IN LONDON THIS SEASON
A couple of years on from its Chateau Marmont-inspired capsule line, Alessandro and his Gucci gang dropped into bougie AF London landmark the Savoy Hotel, where Guccio Gucci was a bellboy, for AW21. Reimagining the legendary destination as the kind of glittering disco den we’d do bad things to be drinking, dancing, and being generally debaucherous in right now, models strut up and down the runway wearing leather riding hats bearing the hotel’s name.
ALESSANDRO TOOK A TRIP BACK THROUGH THE LAST 100 YEARS
Where usually Gucci models are turned out wearing somewhere in the region of about 726 layers (don’t quote us on that), this season’s collection was actually pretty stripped back. Slick, tailored suits in bold candy colours were matched with undone-to-the-belly-button pointed collar shirts, while severe wipe-clean trenches were paired with similarly shiny equestrian boots. Things took a turn for the sexy when boys were sent down the runway in after dark-ready skin-tight cropped-tops and languid, wide-legged trousers, and girls in crystal-studded corsets, enormous fluffy, feathery coats, and low-slung, horsebit trimmed pants followed suit.
Clearly, Alessandro had been digging into the vast Gucci archives for the new season, with Tom Ford’s sex-infused influence immediately recognisable in the collection’s sharp, velvet suiting and 70s-style shades. Elsewhere, the jockey also got a high-fashion makeover, as the designer mined ‘the equestrian world of Gucci’. This meant fetish-y leather harnesses, knee-high boots, and riding hats – plus the odd riding crop, which were sure to excite the kinkier Gucci fans among us. Cranking things up a notch in this area were the models who savagely cracked jewel-encrusted whips and cat o’ nine tails on the runway as they walked, or otherwise carried glittering heart-shaped clutches grasped in their hands. After a year in which many of us weren’t getting any thanks to the virus that needs no introduction, sex was firmly on the agenda for AW21.
YEP, A GUCCI BALENCIAGA ‘HACK’ IS REALLY HAPPENING
...with a series of looks blending signatures from both houses into one harmonious – and no doubt extremely hype-y – postmodern union. With sparkly hourglass skirt suits bearing dual logos and Demna’s sharp-shouldered coats reimagined in the Gucci monogram, logomania is alive, kicking, and showing no signs of going anywhere in the near future. It also felt like a pretty seismic moment for fashion: a total ripping up of the rulebook by two behemoth brands. Just don’t call it a collaboration – Alessandro regards the link up as ‘a mutual contamination’, or a ‘hacking’ of the two houses’ codes. So there you go!
THE HOUSE SPOTLIGHTED SOME RISING TALENT
...inviting young creatives to work alongside longtime Gucci collaborator, artist and videographer Floria Sigismondi, to capture the goings-on backstage. Among them was 22-year-old, LA-based photographer and filmmaker Essence Moseley, who captured models laughing between takes and playing with the baby bunnies on set for the shoot. “I wanted to encapsulate the candid moments I’d share with people, they were the most precious to me during Gucci’s beautiful show,” she reveals. Check her cute, candid photos out in the gallery below, and take a look at the full offering in the one above.
