Gucci’s confinement cast of creatives

Leave it to Alessandro Michele to make a collection video unlike anything we’ve seen before; one whose cast was composed of the creative team that designed the actual clothes and accessories on display.

Presented Friday morning, the final day of the four-day debut Milan Digital Fashion Week, the house’s contribution was entitled Gucci Epilogue. And all shot in Rome.

“I wanted to honor the magic ritual of a fashion show: a sacred and unique liturgy thanks to which creative thinking is revealed and offered as an interpretation to a community of free spectators. I wanted to lift the curtain on the backstage,” explained Michele, who appeared several times in a pop-up window in this online show.

Artfully staged inside Palazzo Sacchetti in Rome, a particular beautiful Renaissance palace on central via Giulia, distinctive for its brilliant trompe l’oeil Renaissance frescos and giant heads of goddess that adorn its terracotta roof. It’s also located a few hundred yards from both Michele’s own apartment and his Gucci design studio.

This was actually a live streaming, even if it featured lots of pre-recorded videos. It began by focusing on one unknown woman in a white waffle cotton dressing gown about to get her makeup done pre-show, as masked individuals scurried about. She turned out to be Sandrine Delloye, Gucci’s kid’s designer; one of a dozen senior individuals from Michele’s creative team who made up the cast. Taking creative confinement and husbanding one’s resources to a new level.

Delloye wore one of the final looks, number 76E, shamrock green pants; silk blouse and turban with a fab floral print blazer. While hand bag designer Beatrice Gianni wore the first look, a classic assemblage by Michele of worsted G logo waistcoat and jacket over red knee-length skirt and snakeskin boots. Finished with a silver pendant cross and multiple chunky bangles it was vintage Alessandro – a happy meeting of déclassé aristocrat and well-read intellectual babe.

In a co-ed collection, women’s wear designer Daniele Grande was next up in a faded plaid gent’s coat worn over a Gondolier’s sweater and jeans. Like most every look, Daniele was shown in triplicate: often model’s color card photos, that were super-imposed on life images of the interior of the palazzo, or the garden, where a small round trampoline had been installed. Occasionally the color cards were video, making it very easy to get a precise idea of the actual clothes. Each shot often juxtaposed by photos of fruit and vegetables – from earthy tomato to purple cabbage to split peas.

A voiceover explained this was all a Final Act of the Fairy Tale, the end of a trilogy. Michele appearing on screen again post-show, explaining that due to the pandemic, “the creator had now become the performer.”

All told, a very witty manner in which to display a particularly colorful and playful Gucci collection, where the clothes were intermingled with shots of cracked dolls; 19th century drawling rooms; and worn settees in abandoned yards.

“In the company where I work, people share the idea that change is essential, interesting and must be practiced, that you need to be brave. And not only did I practice courage, but I understood that you don’t really need courage, you just need to do what you feel,” concluded Michele, after probably his most personal aesthetic statement to date in his revolutionary reign at Gucci.

Gucci’s confinement cast of creatives

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