Alessandro Michele, don’t hide your light under a bushel. Or, more accurately, don’t hide your light between a too-distant, glass-encased runway and silver-mirrored pyramid under tricky stage lights that keep going up and down. Pithy? No, but neither was Michele’s effusive fall collection for Gucci.
Rather, it had a whole lot going on. So thank God for the backstage walk-through, however brief. It afforded the chance to glimpse what Michele’s Gucci is all about, which is almost-couture.
Michele no longer captivates his audience with the shock of the new. In a very short time, he has established a clear signature: all eccentricity, gentleness, cross-references, magpie pilings and especially, highly decorative clothes and accessories. He’s not interested in seasonal flip-flops. “Creativity is something that belongs to the person that lets a brand live,” he said. “You create every time a story — it’s a chapter. [Your] taste is [your] taste…repetition doesn’t mean it’s not new, repetition means there is something refined and different, upside down. It’s like love.” He likened himself to an alchemist, mixing far-flung ingredients into a heady concoction.
That loaded alchemy is not for everyone. While some experience the proverbial fashion swoon, others shrug in confusion. “Carnival clothes,” remarked one exiting guest. These are indeed niche clothes, which
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