Gucci is tightly coordinated behind Michele, who turned the brand around with alacrity when he took the design reins, and who has defied previous predictions that the brand’s moment was waning.
The collection that Michele revealed Tuesday night would surprise only someone unfamiliar with his magpie approach to design and his ungendered takes on styling, with pastel blouses and gowns for men and women, and masculine tailoring for all. “I do what I feel,” Michele said. The collection was chock-full of high margin accessories — including tights, facial jewellery, scarves and hats as well as its famous green-and-white striped bags and footwear.
Roughly 500 guests sat in director chairs that lined the Hollywood Walk of Stars, with seats made of the brand’s well known double-G Gucci logo fabric. The production shut down an entire block of Hollywood Boulevard by Madame Tussauds museum and the “Everything’s $10 Luxury Accessories” store, across from Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The event was live-streamed to Asia, where time zones worked in the brand’s favour — but Gucci didn’t leave the rest of the world to watch the rerun on Youtube. Foreign press who were unable to travel to Los Angeles, largely due to US pandemic travel restrictions, were invited to breakfast and screenings the following morning at chic and often opulent theatres such as Paris’ Silencio des Pres, Madrid’s Cine Dore, and Rome’s arthouse Cinema Farnese.
The Florence-based fashion brand’s executives called it a “phygital” fashion show, and some laughed, rolling their eyes at what they say is the new buzzword spoken at every corporate Gucci meeting. It’s an approach to showing collections that is likely to last beyond the current pandemic.
The pandemic has changed more than the way Gucci shares its collections. “The pandemic has changed me. All of us look like we are the same people, but we are not,” Michele said. “I felt the danger that I might die. I felt the connection between life and death.” He added that he feels grateful for where he works, noting, “I work in a company that gives a lot of freedom.”
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