With one neckwear for many of the familiar looks, Sabato De Sarno sent out an impractical accesory to distinguish his debut men’s collection for Gucci

This was not exactly Sabato De Sarno’s follow-up to his first collection for Gucci, shown last September, even if it was his sophomoric outing for the house. This was his debut men’s collection. Yet, the show could have been one presented a day after the earlier production for women. The space was the same (although the location was, reportedly, different). The lighting was the same. The rectangular flow of the models’s trek was the same. The soundtrack was danceable too. In fact, some of the pieces looked like the women’s, sized for guys. Or re-proportioned (including the bags). It was just as a different season. Apparently, the collection was designed at the same time as the woman’s. Mr De Sarno has created what is dubbed a mirror image of his debut. What the point was was not immediately clear. Aesthetic synergy, perhaps? A belief that what he did before, although widely criticised to be lame, was the right path to the rebirth of Gucci?

In this way, re-calling the collection Ancora (Italian for ‘again’) makes sense. In a wordy essay for introducing the collection (which, in fact, stated that the collection was “a story of… words—words in artworks, words in pictures, words in spaces, just words”), Mr De Sarno maintained that the he was most interested in the “story of joy of life, of passion, of humanity, of people, of real life, of irreverent glamour, of provocation, of confidence, of simplicity, of immediate feelings and emotions… of richness and desire, of red but also blue and green, of flash, of spontaneity, of light, of a party at the first light of day”, which could mean anything. And, that is the main problem, for a lack of a better word, with the collection. It was a hard to have a real grasp of what it truly was about. The separates were undeniably handsome, but somehow, there was a sense that you’d seen them elsewhere. Jil Sander perhaps? Bottega Veneta? Or Valentino? Was this collection Italy’s greatest hits?

If the clothes did not stand out too much, throw in a neck accessory or two. In fact, out of 56 looks, only six were shown sans adorned necks. One piece that Mr De Sarno used with surprising frequency is neckwear that looked like an unheld leash—a silk tie attached to chains (or hardware that looked like chains or links) worn as a choker, with the skinny length of fabric left to trail down the torso, acting like an errant tie. Or, awaiting to be tugged by some master in an S&M frolic. So proud he must have been with this hard/soft jewellery that he even had it as a starring piece when a model appeared shirtless, save the tailed neck piece. If men, even at the highest corporate level, are dropping their neckties, do they now need newer versions? Or is it because more are abandoning the executive look that a crystal studded singlet with a deeply-scooped neckline can tempt the magpies among men? And that suits must come beaded all over?

Despite the “mirroring”, the looks seemed to work better for men then they did for women (presumably the first drop will appear in stores very soon). One of them is the navy blouson with the semblance of sailor collar, decorated with crystals. On the guy, it looked somewhat more refreshing since it is not yet common that men’s garments are so intensely adorned. The relationship of men to women’s clothing is not (yet) quite a cut of steak with yuzu glaze. As much as Gucci is supposed to dial down the meretricious, they are quite happy to allow the men’s clothing take on a campier, if not feminine makeover. Two days ago, we were in the Gucci store at ION Orchard. There was no one. The racks and shelves were not packed with merchandise as they once were. A salesgirl was trying to sell us something—anything. Everything around us looked remnants of an era past, and fading, fast. Whether the store will be refurbished to better enfold Sabato De Sarno’s minimalism tempered with dashes of blink is not immediately clear. But these are, we say hopefully, still early days.

Screen shot (top): gucci/YouTube. Photos: Gucci