#alessandro michele

Gucci | Flower Lace Bodysuit | Gucci Aria

Fran Summers by Alasdair McLellan | Gucci lingerie set + stockings | British Vogue March 2022 

Cici Tamez by Jackie Nickerson | all lingerie + ready-to-wear pieces by Gucci | AnOther Magazine Spring Summer 2022

Gucci Fall/Winter 2019 photographed by Glen Luchford. Creative direction by Alessandro Michele.

There is something about reinvention…

- Gucci SS16 by Alessandro Michele

- Orientalism by Jean Léon Gérôme 

Alessandro Michele of Gucci Pays Homage to David Bowie

Gucci Menswear 2016

Gucci Ready to wear spring 2017 by Alessandro Michele Details

Gucci  Ready to wear spring 2017 by Alessandro Michele

Milan Fashion Week - Days 1 & 2

Milan is currently hosting Fashion Week, and as I’m living there I can tell you: the city breathes and lives fashion! Let’s see together these first two days of fashion week.

Day 1

Genny went sexy this time, with total see-through crossed by lines forming geometrical shapes. Beautiful the white and gold pieces.

Himalaya is definitely Stella Jean’s latest inspiration (photo 1), as we’ve seen in her menswear collection - and she actually translated some of the prints she used for menswear here for this new exciting collection. Useless to talk about print when it’s Stella Jean: that’s her signatur, we know that, we love that. Last season I wished she would change something in her design which was becoming repetitive; now I can say I’m happy with this collection. I loved the puff skirts in plaid, the warm pullovers and the beading made of pearls, little jewels, fringes… I even saw a more sophisticated attitude in her tartan trench coats.

Luisa Beccaria’s collection was about modern Cinderellas, and you could actually feel that romantic atmosphere in these clothes inspired by lady-like shapes and the most classic of gowns and feminine desires: a pale golden long evening gown with no decoration but just its simplicity; cute little caps; chiffon blouses, blingy cocktail dresses.

Gucci (photo 2) is still recognisable as Gucci, so we can breathe easy. I admit, after the beautiful menswear collection I saw in January I expected more from the new appointed creative director Alessandro Michele, but there were still many very valid elements. For example, it was slightly more daring than usual: some models were basically walking down the runway with completely sheer ensemble - without wearing bras, of course. It continued on the gender-crossing mission, and some looks could be definitely worn by either men or women. Yet, there was something missing, that je-ne-sais-quoi which still doesn’t convince me completely. But Gucci is on the right track.

Every designer draws inspiration from the remote past from time to time - Alberta Ferretti (photo 3) did it now. Renaissance was visible in these total white lace looks, or in the brocade-like coats and trousers lightened by golden threads against the black background. I particularly appreciated the white blouses, being the pieces in which the detailing is at the same time the most subtle and the most intricate and sophisticated. I also liked No. 21 collection (photo 4), and the only negative thing I can say about it is that I still need to find that fil rouge connecting the different styles in it. Overall, though, I was completely blown away by the pixeled landscape print and the dozens of ruffles architecturally placed around the body covered by the white coats and jackets looking like white paper.

Fausto Puglisi’s style doesn’t suit me personally, but I recognise the strength in it, a sort of kitsch attitude combining very distant things together, gold and zebra print, elegant shapes and urban style. Francesco Scognamiglio’s show (photo 5) started with extremely simple black silk dresses, and I was already in love. It takes guts to give start to a runway show with extreme simplicity. It kept that way throughout the collection, with some highs of sexiness and sweetness some times, romantic shapes and ethereal fabrics gently and swiftly following the body lines.

The principle ‘sport, sport, sport’ is taking Brunello Cucinelli as well, so much that he decided to match activewear shapes with hyper soft furs for this new collection. And I’m sure this can make a trend.

Day 2

Max Mara proposed effortless looks with effortless shades in effortless shapes: coats lost all the decorations, even buttons were invisible; shades veered towards sand, beige, cream; beautiful the quilted sweater coordinated with the quilted silk coat. Even more basic was the direction taken by Les Copains, yet there was a sober atmosphere which gave space to the very small details: jewel brooches, the soft quality of materials, colours declined in different very similar shades building a tonal architecture which gave depth and structure to the clothes.

Fendi (photo 6) went slightly alternative. Younger and fresher than usual, it started with loud white ensembles in candid leather which lit up the runway completely. It went on with very innovative elements: the duvet of the coats used to create total duvet dresses, maxi-coats with strong shoulders, oversize furs wrapping the body.

It’s official: I like Roberto Cavalli’s secondary line, Just Cavalli (photo 7). It’s becoming much more polished, elegant and animal prints are disappearing or are translated into something more graphic and less predictable. It was Cavalli anyway: the fur, the feathers, the edgy attitude of his woman, everything was there as proof that you can keep your style without necessarily going tacky. The one thing I loved about this collection was the extreme variety of the offer: there were little dresses in total black, maxi furs, studded jackets, mini skirts…

Miuccia abandoned the black she embraced during last season and for menswear, and she went back to her first love for this Prada (photo 8) collection: colour. And crazy prints as well. Everything looked like being made of neoprene, but then I read Tim Blanks’s review and saw that he missed the 'joke’ as well: it wasn’t neoprene, but double-faced jersey. Magician Miuccia pulled another rabbit from her magic hat. And so she went on, with irony, mimicking tartan and tweed prints, mixing colours, showing that something new in fashion can still be created.

Cristiano Burani presented a cool collection with an edgy and activewear twist: bomber jackets in fur, coloured stripes everywhere, black leather and glossy plastic for mini-skirts. Daniela Gregis knows how to be a conceptual designer without giving up on wearability. Research on cut and colour was central: peek-a-boo elements opening a window on brushes of colours looking like painted on a canvas. Black serving as the contrast against which opposing the whole rainbow.

Byblos Milan opened its show with shocking pink and colour blocking, which could trick you into thinking you were going to assist to an explosion of tones. That was not the case: colours were used to lit up the main shade, which was definitely black. Black made electric by blue, black made bright by the match with the most classic white, black being sexy as pattern on sheer fabric against the naked skin. And then Moschino came. The first looks really made me hope that Jeremy Scott was over the references to pop culture - which I like, but you know, you have to change if you want to stay hot in fashion. Then it started with another of his obsessions: cartoons. This time it was Looney Tunes, but the formula was the same: blingy accessories, shapes and types borrowed from football, basketball, sport in general. But it wasn’t even cartoons: it suddenly went to what we can easily call the new 'mascotte’ of Moschino, the teddy bear. And then graffiti. It was definitely too much - but is it a praise or a critique for a designer whose motto can easily be summed up by 'more is more’? Anyway, my favourite part was definitely this last one: I didn’t even think Scott could be able to conceive such elegant traditional shapes. Reinvented through the colourful graffiti though. Yes, I would have definitely loved to see some more of that, it would have made Moschino collection one of the best so far. 

I was in love with Ports 1961 (photo 9) as soon as I saw the first photo of this new collection. After that, I couldn’t get over it anymore. Beautiful the grey ensemble with the maxi-knot in front, being the detail which turned around a whole look. And then it went on with ethereal fabrics, looking like made of nothing, the beautiful draping of some gowns - bravely paired with slippers - decoration to the minimum: even the simplest thing can look great.

Marcelo Burlon County of Milan closes my first review for MFW, and I can say alternative futuristic fashion lovers have found their guide in Milan. Everything was over-the-top without being bad taste: graphic prints, silver fabric looking like space suits, exaggerated proportions.

xxx

Alessandro Michele and Jared Leto in Gucci.

The Holy Trinity rocking the Met Gala via Jared’s InstaStory (5.7.18)

I would like to thank Jared Leto for capturing all these beautiful moments with Lana & Alessandro.

From Jared’s InstaStory @ the Met Gala (5.7.18)

From Jared Leto’s InstaStory (5.7.18)

Gucci at the Met!

Excuse me while I cry

more on my art books instagram page

YORGOS LANTHIMOS : OVIPARITY

Ed. Gucci, Published by IDEA, designed by Vasilis Marmatakis, Hardcover in two part clothbound slipcase, 120 pages, 2019, Edition of 1000. . . Shot by Yorgos Lanthimos (and designed by Vasilis Marmatakis - the genius behind Yorgos’ posters and titles design) at the Galleria Leda in the Villa Albani Torlonia in Rome. All the clothes are from Gucci’s 2020 Cruise collection.

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more on my art books instagram page

YORGOS LANTHIMOS : OVIPARITY

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