The arithmetic of fashion goes like this: take a status brand, such as Gucci, and multiply it to the power of X by putting it in the hands of a zeitgeist-hitting designer. Pair the right label with the right person at the right moment, and you hit the jackpot.
At this Milan fashion week, Gucci’s numbers were never quite going to add up. Despite having the illustrious, high-value brand name, there is a big fat zero where the designer should be. Sales fell 24% in the last quarter of 2024, and designer Sabato de Sarno exited the brand a fortnight ago. The departure was expected, but the timing spoke of a brand rattled by the failure of recent collections to connect with shoppers.
The new collection, a group effort by the leaderless design team presented with chin-up fanfare, a live orchestra and trays of champagne, was a statement about what Gucci has been, and can be again with the right creative leader. This was a solid greatest hits package, harking back to the brand at its most glamorous – the 1960s, and its sexiest – the 1990s.
Luxe faux fur coats over pencil skirts paid homage to the days when Sophia Loren was a beloved customer at the Gucci store in Rome; shift dresses with oversized buttons and daringly high hemlines brought a dash of Jackie Kennedy. Menswear channelled the same period, with boxy car coats worn over turtlenecks in the beatnik-meets-cockney spirit of Michael Caine in his The Italian Job era. Horse-bit hardware and bamboo handles, details as Gucci as a double G logo, showed up on belts and bags. Tom Ford’s 1990s handwriting was here too, in tissue-thin slip dresses plunging low to the navel and the base of the spine, and a sheer lace skirt with the briefest of black knickers visible beneath.
The design team, who took a joint bow at the end of the show in matching green Gucci sweatshirts, had fun with the colour palette. A poison green pencil skirt winked under a violet coat, while a blood-red blouse brought a pale pink skirt suit to life.
De Sarno’s Gucci was a loafer-led vision of quiet luxury. But the brand’s fans, who had gotten used to being endlessly entertained by the exuberant Instagram-bait maximalism of his predecessor, Alessandro Michele, were unexcited.
Rumours abound about Gucci’s next move. Having rolled the dice on an unknown name from within the design studio with the appointment of de Sarno, owners Kering are thought to be looking for a star designer to restore status.
after newsletter promotion
Hedi Slimane, talented and charismatic and with a proven track record of making classic brands compelling anew, is now intriguingly unsigned after a successful stint at Celine. The British designer Kim Jones, who has already spent four years at Milan’s top table with a tenure at Fendi, which ended last year, is another possible contender.
Article by:Source: Jess Cartner-Morley in Milan
