Gucci is on the cusp of a new era. With the announcement of a Creative Direction successor still pending following ex-spearhead Alessandro Michele’s departure, a new dawn for the label looms. And whilst such welcome – albeit, daunting – change is in the air for the illustrious label, it’s hard not to feel like we’re heading into this year’s Milanese fashion season blindfolded.
It’s difficult to trace our memories back to a time when Michele wasn’t at the helm of the historic house. For almost eight years, the designer’s boundary-pushing shows, cult campaigns and celebrity endorsed collections had helped launch Gucci to the Gen-Z masses, all whilst quietly, yet regularly driving quarterly growth rates up for the brand by around 50%. Michele, who himself was catapulted into the role of Creative Director by CEO Marco Bizzarri – an appointment which shocked the fashion world after the Tom Ford hire’s years of relative obscurity within the label’s accessories design studio – had changed the course of Gucci’s direction within the first crucial months of his appointment, debuting the likes of his industry worshipped, fur-lined Princeton loafers and genderless apparel championed by A-List stars such as Harry Styles.
Now, with Gucci set to open Men’s Fashion Week in Milan on the 13th January (marking their first menswear-only show since the pandemic swept the world) a new era is born for the Italian house. Under Michele’s lead, Gucci’s shows became less frequent and more theatrical. Michelle stated back in 2020 that his aim was to refresh “the worn-out ritual of seasonalities and shows” by presenting only co-ed collections. Now however, it appears that Gucci is going back to its roots. Carlo Capasa, president of the Italian fashion’s governing body Camera della Moda, applauded the decision to return to separate men’s and women’s collections, describing it as a ‘comeback’ for the house. Analysts have even predicted the rate of shows could go up to as many as six per year – a stark contrast to Michele’s star-studded, genderless, globe-trotting events which arguably focused more on showmanship than regularity.
Whilst we still don’t know who will man the ship following Michele’s departure, there have been many reports suggesting that Gucci’s in-house design team will be responsible for the label’s opening show on the 13th of January. With Michele at the helm, we were dazzled (and perhaps sometimes, absorbed) by splashy spectacles and social-media worthy gimmicks. As the label takes its next highly anticipated step into a new fashion season, will the content of the collections take precedent once more? If a hedonistically sexy, tailored Tom Ford-era of minimalism is back on the cards, many will rejoice. However, after eight years of solid, palpable recognition as a cultural phenomenon, only time will tell if Gucci’s new chapter will look back to bygone eras for inspiration, or instead take notes from their biggest period of growth in decades. For Gucci hereon, the only way is up.
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See also: DISSECTING ALESSANDRO MICHELE: SEVEN YEARS OF GUCCI GLORY
See also: THE SHINING, BUT MAKE IT GUCCI: KEY TAKEAWAYS
