Alessandro Michele’s Gucci SS16 Collection Will Be One Of The Standouts Of The Season

The fashion caravan moved to Milan this morning in time for Gucci, the opening show of the Italian season. Of course, this has been one of fashion's biggest names for decades but it is currently enjoying a whole new lease of life courtesy of Alessandro Michele who took to the helm of the label in January this year.

Overnight, the designer ditched the power glamazon that has ruled this particular runway until now in favour of a gentler more free-spirited creature. His men are not afraid to explore their feminine side, his women are, equally, fluid where gender is concerned. Vintage-inspired tea dresses, pussy bow blouses, androgynous tailoring and, of course, fur lined loafers and clogs are just some of the pieces that have set sartorially discerning hearts aflutter so far.

Alessandro showed his debut women's ready-to-wear collection in this city six months ago now and throughout that time le tout fashion has been waiting on his every move. Not since Tom Ford's heyday as Gucci creative director in the late Nineties has its collections been so hotly anticipated. So what did this younger designer have to say for the forthcoming season?

Rather than any radical about turn, a lovely evolution was the order of the day, name checking 'Carte de Tendre', published in 1854 by Madeleine de Scudery, described in the show notes as 'a map of tenderness, a moving topography of desire'.

While the geeky eyewear and, more significantly, effortlessly eclectic, magpie mix of antique references, silhouette and fabrication remained, this was a more unashamedly romantic view of femininity still. The most delicate ruffled chiffon in girlish shades rubbed shoulders with opulent brocades and grass green lace. Silk blouses were closed at the throat with a single rose and poppies were embroidered and printed across narrow shirtwaisters. Knife-pleated sleeve cuffs glimmered with silver sequins, jewelled mouths decorated jacquard ties. Venomous snakes, that archetypal symbol of the fall from innocence, found there way onto the backs of jackets: an emerald satin bomber edged with the iconic Gucci green and red stripe or a tougher oversized hand-painted perfecto jacket and matching skirt.

The backless loafers that are currently flying off the shelves were here once again, very sweet in pale shades stamped with meadow flowers. Sky-high platform-soled designs in brighter hues and with a spike heel were more fierce though still studiously eccentric in flavour.

At the end of the show the designer took his bows to a rapturous response, safe in the knowledge that his collection will doubtless be received as among the standouts of the international season.