Alessandro Michele - designer who changed the idea of Gucci
In the past twenty years, the Italian brand Gucci has changed more than once, sometimes completely updating the image of itself. In 2011 new creative director of Gucci, Marco Bizzarri made the decision to appoint Michele spontaneously: “Fashion should create emotions, it is not always easily explained,” he said in an interview with American Vogue. “I thought:“ Why should I look for someone on the side when Alessandro can perfectly transmit the brand’s heritage - all Gucci codes and values are already inside him.”
Frida (creative director at that time) did not wait for the show, which was only a week away, and immediately left the company. As a result, the fall-winter 2015/2016 show, the first in Michele’s career, he created in five days. The press sitting on the show was shocked - and after the final passage of the models, when Alessandro bowed with his team, exploded in a flurry of applause.
There was a lot of revolutionary in that show. Firstly, a new casting of models, almost completely eroding the boundaries of the floor: in many cases it was completely incomprehensible whether the girl was walking along the catwalk or a young man. Clothing has become more artistic and touching, avoiding stereotypes, in other words - self-sufficient and expressive.
During these five days, Michele and his team managed to do the incredible: not just create a fashion collection, but completely reformat the image of Gucci man. During those same five working days, Michele used his vintage collection - exploring styles and fabrics. Alessandro himself announced that “this collection celebrates the incompatibilities that today define personal style”, that he wanted to interpret “feelings, not a silhouette; experience, not an era.”
In his opinion, you don’t need to understand modernity well, it is not necessary to clearly coincide with time, its requests and codes. In his fall-winter collection, he just explores the world through this “incompatibility”, noting not so much the present moment, but the gap between “no longer” and “not yet”, as well as proclaiming freedom from all that is traditional and generally accepted.
Frightened by the courage of the Michele winter show, the fashion world became more favorable for Michele immediately after that - a mixed cruise with women and men. all these blazers with slightly flared trousers, shirts with “jammed” folds, an abundance of embroidery and a combination of a dozen ornaments, pulled out of the chests of vintage stores, not only have the right to exist, but also feel better in the modern world than ever before.
Michele figured out how to get started so that the Gucci name is associated with something modern, and not so much fashionable as reflecting the spirit of the times. For all adherents of the traditional, the brand still has suits and shoes on order, the rest, starting this season, get much more - endless self-confidence, devoid of pomp and ostentatious sexuality.
