MILAN, ITALY — This is Demna’s second season designing for Gucci, and by now, he’s made a couple of things clear. First, he’s dedicated to creating character-infused collections. Second, he’s committed to a few key silhouettes, such as the boyish blazer and the longline dress. Both the scale and repetitiveness of his collections are in service of his borderline obsessive-compulsive need to refine his core pieces and make them ever more luxurious.
The seemingly simple pieces possess a freakishly luxe quality—to wit, a black-toned sheer cotton topper, detailed with a sharp collar and shoulders, not to mention the fluid lines that seemed to have magically worked their way into the garment’s construction. A similar purple dress, with its sinuous structure, required so much material that it made your head spin. Demna’s clothes earn their cost.
Top of mind this season was honing Demna’s point of view. On the one hand, he’s given an even freer hand to his gloomy streak, incorporating tons of wispy silk and introducing a few tomboyish items; on the other, lest all those sheers make you think Demna is impractical, he’s put his focus on suiting and lightweight outerwear. There were some excellent, aggressively simplified coats that approached functionality from one direction; a new range of fitted, layered pieces came at it from another.
The collection represents the complete palette of personalities that embody Demna’s Gucci: the Rebellious Aristocrat, the Snob, and the Eccentric.
Menswear and womenswear unfold in succession as two outings within a single show, mirroring how the lines are offered in store. Bourgeois dress codes tinged with an equestrian sensibility open the womenswear, giving way to sharply tailored pantsuits and skirt suits with a metropolitan undertone.
The collection brings the House back to its roots at The Savoy Hotel, a meeting place for people from entirely different worlds. It envisions the brand as a space of possibility, where those who may seem to have nothing in common can meet, connect, and inspire one another—and where anyone can become whoever they choose to be.
Staged as a store under construction, the space features partially clad walls and abraded, unpolished surfaces, with deliberately rough brushstrokes and a visible patina. Its deliberately unfinished textures reflect the process of the House’s new architectural identity gradually taking form.
by Chidozie Obasi