Another between-CDs collection at Gucci. What did they really wish to say with this?

Even before watching the livestream last night, we were sure Gucci would receive favourable reviews, or a rapturous reception (that, they did) at their opening for Milan Fashion Week. The house is currently without a creative director, and it shared that the autumn/winter 2025 collection was designed by the studio team. And to be sure none of us suspected that to be untrue, they had the whole group—about two dozens of them—take the bow at the end of the presentation. The previous designer, Sabato de Sarno, left the Florentine house less than a month ago. It is very odd that he was not involved at all in the collection, even six months before he stepped down. Was Mr de Sarno’s departure—so close to the showing—timed so that he won’t receive any credit for the collection? Or are we unnecessarily suspicious, even sceptical?

It was, without doubt, a grand presentation, complete with a live orchestra, featuring original music by two-time Oscar winner Justin Hurwitz (he scored 2016’s biggest fluff, La La Land). The massive room, in which the action was set up, had in its centre a massive double-G runway that was reflected in the mirrored ceiling, in case anyone couldn’t discern the intertwined pair of the 6th letter of the English alphabet. When we saw it, as the Gucci-ed-to-the-max celebrity-guests took their seats (many of the men in monogram-embossed leather jackets), we could not help but recall the interlocking Cs of the recent Chanel haute couture show that formed the ramps-as-runway at the Grand Palais (another collection that a studio effort). It was clear that Gucci desired to play up their ‘house codes’ (forgive the tired expression), but it was not enough to see the horse bits or the snaffle used aggressively, the audience had to confront those preposterously massive Double-Gs, while the models were sandwiched by them.

There was green everywhere, at least on and around the runway, which made us wonder if the production designer of The Matrix was responsible for the admittedly eye-catching construction. Whatever happened to Mr de Sarno’s much-touted ‘Ancora’ red? Ditched? Dumped? Disliked? Was it a deliberate attempt at wiping out any trace—even if merely chromatic—that could be linked to the former creative director, once staunchly believed by the higher-ups to be Gucci’s desperately-needed saviour? Within the new, start-afresh greenery, the collection was a throwback to the halcyon days of Gucci. If this pretty preserve—tinged with palpably unsound taste (how to explain those leggings with glittery monogram?)—was what the brand truly desired, it is hard to think that Mr de Sarno could not deliver.

But, surely even a transition collection can say something more definitive? Instead, we get a bit of Alessandro Michele’s aesthetics with Sabato de Sarno’s (we sensed they did not toss the pieces he was already working on when he quit) thrown in for good measure, and whoever’s in the studio, surely those who desired to join the effervescent conversation. And since they were on it, why not some Tom Ford too? And those colour-saturated skirt-suits that Donatella Versace would wink at, approvingly. It was a coed collection, but the women’s was marginally better than the men’s—it could not unshackle itself from the ’70s vibes evident since Mr Ford’s time. There is, of course, similar aesthetical leaning with the women’s pieces, including the overt sexiness of ’90s Gucci that Mr Michele had initially tried to undo, but, in sum, it was a studio effort, one that we saw and was unimpressed with exactly two years ago. The world has been so keenly interested in the developments at Gucci, but what has Gucci done that deserves this rabid interest?

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