Le Palace, Jane and The Past. Gucci SS19

September 25, 2018September 25, 2018 | Design & Culture by Ed

The first day of fashion week felt like a present you’ve been waiting for for a long time, but in the end you didn’t really get what you wanted. Three collections: the boringly beautiful Dior (rumoured to be the last coming from Maria Grazia Chiuri), very obvious Jacquemus and the one-time-only Gucci show in the French capital, which from the three felt the most exciting. The last part of Alessandro Michele’s French trilogy (we had the 1968 student protest inspired advertising campaign and the memorable, ‘on fire’ resort 2019 collection in Arles) ended up in Le Palace, the historically famous club that used to be the Mecca for such night-goers like Yves Saint Laurent, Bianca Jagger or Karl Lagerfeld. Through the film that was played in the beginning of the show, we learned that the experimental theatre of Leo de Berardinis and Perla Peragallo served as a reference for Michele’s spring-summer 2019 creations. The clothes couldn’t be more theatrically dramatic, in the designer’s signature, eclectic sense. The models seemed to have played historical dress-up in an old, costume treasure chest just before the show. The overall style was quintessentially Alessandro: vintage-y, opulent, at points simply kitsch. Even though the designer champions gender fluidity in his collections, which is wonderful especially at such a globally renowned brand like Gucci, I honestly think that his latest line-up dug too deep in the past. Additional nostalgia was brought by Jane Birkin, who in the middle of the show stood up from her front row seat and started to sing the melancholic Baby Alone in Babylone. Don’t get me wrong. The spectacle (it can be hardly called a ‘fashion show’) was a masterpiece. But the fashion part, even if tried hard to remind of Parisian clubbing chic, was monotonously Michele who we see every single season. Aesthetically I absolutely can’t relate to this collection. How about the true Gucci customer? I guess anything goes.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

When in Alyscamps. Gucci Resort 2019

June 7, 2018June 7, 2018 | Design & Culture by Ed

It was Gucci and the ancient necropolis of Alyscamps, a stone throw from the French city of Arles, that followed the Louis Vuitton cruise show in the Cote d’Azur. The lightness and sun-drenched mood of French Riviera got erased by a massive dose of historical weight and a sense of mysticism that Alessandro Michele adores to implement into his clothes, and the Italian brand. It’s not a surprise that the collection was heavy in details and focused on a beautiful chaos, typical for the escapist universe of the creative director. The line-up was like a moving closet for women and men, or rather for anyone who feels free to wear the clothes. That’s Alessandro’s way of pushing Gucci into no-gender-boundaries label. So there it all was on that, literally, ‘on fire’ runway: a gown with a skeleton thorax embroidered on the bodice (disturbingly magnificent), bridal dresses embellished with Christian crosses, leggings with memento mori written all over, richly embroidered toga dresses, punk-ish boots, opulent robes, jaw-dropping faux fur coats and lots of flowers (that replaced real accessories). I no longer look at Michele’s collection in terms of clothes only. That just doesn’t make sense. His creations are like a theatre, where everything matters: the styling, the models, the setting, the music.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Identity. Gucci AW18

February 22, 2018February 22, 2018 | Design & Culture by Ed

After reading Susannah Frankel’s massive feature on Alessandro Michele in the latest issue of Another, there’s no wonder why Gucci‘s creative director is… the way he is. His mother worked in film industry and was the 50s, Hollywood loving female; his father was a free-spirited, as Michele says, shaman. Such clash of identities had to result in a single mind, as wildly creative as of Alessandro. The autumn-winter 2018 collection is an overdrive of explosive surprises, that convey a message: we all have an identity, whether formed by our surroundings, culture or interests.

The venue looked like a cosmic surgery room, with an operation table standing in the middle. Was it a metaphor that Dr. Alessandro (and Gucci) are here to shape your, who knows, expression? If yes, then it’s quite a struggle to decide which aspect of the collection should we start with. Maybe the models, who carried their heads (!), snakes and baby dragons? Make-up – if you still can call it that shallow way – that consisted of Frida Kahlo uni-brows and cyclop eyes? Or even Pussy Riot balaclavas, manga-inspired prints and velvet burqas? Still, the collection was not only true to Alessandro’s extremely eclectic style, but his Gucci-fiyed reality. Gucci logo is everywhere, from the silk scarf tops to the buttons a tweed jacket. Welcome to the Gucci ‘pluriverse’, where there’s no place for trends, conformity or lethal routine.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

On Monotony. Gucci SS18

September 21, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

Alessandro Michele‘s phenomena at Gucci needs no introduction. I think his striking, even terrific style, has reached its limit a long time ago, and keeps on adding up with no end in sight. According to the brand’s creative director, ‘creation’ in itself is a poetic act, and I have nothing against that. But I found his spring-summer 2018 creation not poetic, but, hmm… overcrowded. Don’t get me wrong, Alessandro wouldn’t be him if he did something not ornamental, and I absolutely get that – it’s his aesthetic. But if that collection was a “map of signs to learn to live the world poetically, going beyond its contingency and standardizing monotony”, don’t be surprised if you lose your way with it. I find Ann Demeulemeester poetic. Yohji Yamamoto and Comme Des Garçons are insanely poetic. But Michele’s extremely lush clash of young Elton John’s tour costumes and intergalactic UFO-femme gowns feels rather operatic and dramatic, than a fashion poetry. It’s a hard study of costume with a capital C, not self-expression liberation. Shortly, if you thought that the last Gucci show was too much, you were wrong. This one is too too much. But no fears, the next season will be even more more.

P.s. I think that monotony is lethal. But isn’t Gucci already too predicatable? It’s a kitsch monotony, in fact.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Gucci-fy It. Gucci Resort 2018

May 30, 2017May 31, 2017 | Design & Culture by Ed

In the race of fancy venues for the pre-spring collections, Gucci took their guests to the most Italian city – Florence. And specificaly, to the Palantine gallery of the Palazzo Pitti, known for its ornamental interiors. I wouldn’t be honest with myself if I started to wow and oh over Alessandro Michele‘s latest outing, which is twice richer in literally everything than usual. But what really impressed me was the way Michele went ironic with his up-to-date achievement at Gucci. He didn’t only turn the brand into international commercial prosperity. Have you met some of the Instagram ladies, who wear, breath and think only GUCCI? They’re seriously obsessed with the brand, wearing dozens of Gucci rings at a time and taking total runway looks to the streets. Michele has one, meaningful reply to that mania of his creation: Guccification. At least, some of the t-shirts from his resort 2018 collection had this slogan on.