Alessandro Michele unveiled his second AW collection for the Kering-owned house in Milan yesterday. Here are the top three reasons our fashion director Rebecca says you should care about it...
1.) The Risk Taking
Just one year ago, Gucci’s CEO Marco Bizzarri took a punt on a designer unknown to anyone outside the Gucci studio and gave him free rein to creatively direct the fashion house. The designer’s name was Alessandro Michele and today he is, arguably, the most influential voice in fashion. In 12 months he has re-established Gucci as a brand of vision, brought new customers through its doors, witnessed a steep rise in sales and changed the fashion landscape.
2.) The Gucci Formula
It's essentially about lots of merchandise – ‘molto merch’ – meaning that no two looks are the same; a different shoe and bag with every look, all packaged in a familiar-ish retro-vintage, skewed-lady fashion that flips from trouser suit, to rainbow-hued gown, to 1960s pinafores to pussybow blouses to quilted biker leathers to panther sweatshirts, and so on…
3.) Gucci's New Twist
Michele stepped up the molto-merch diversity (more soave, more sophisticated, more, well, of more) and introduced a collaborator, #GucciGhost, aka @troubleandrew, aka a graffiti artist whose spray painting of the words ‘REAL’ and ‘GG’ appeared on bags and the backs of fur coats and leather jackets. Luxury street vibes. Gucci keeping it real. Word.