“To explore a creative direction is to bring yourself into an already-existing space and show it through your eyes, working from room to room with the goal of reshaping the building again. We choose London for the Cruise show, knowing that was the right choice. I owe a lot to this city, it has welcomed and listened to me. The same is true for Gucci, whose founder was inspired by his experience there. The House’s return is driven by a desire to be immersed in its distinctive essence, its creative driving force with its limitless capability to put together contrasts, make them converse, and find ways to coexist. Today we are here to celebrate that spirit. Tate Modern is the perfect cross-section to narrate the city’s essence, with its great Turbine Hall that welcomes and gathers everyone, and with the Tanks, generators of ideas.” Sabato De Sarno

The Gucci Cruise 2025 fashion show frames it through the mind’s eye of Gucci Creative Director Sabato De Sarno. His memories and recollections of places, people and ideas are woven into a new story, reflective of both the deep and meaningful connections to the city through Gucci’s heritage, and his own personal experiences.

The show takes place at the Tate Modern, a public space that connects different people with culture, a diverse and unique arena for exchange, for unexpected juxtapositions and unanticipated rendezvous. The same was true of The Savoy hotel for Guccio Gucci, inspiring his creation a century ago. The architecture of the building itself represents modernity - function rethought, as a frame for art. Further reconsidered, for this show the outside is brought in: the bare concrete Tanks are invaded by a poetic panorama of greenery. Man and nature, sentimental versus minimal, it again embraces duality, demonstrating two sides of London, two sides of life - a symbolic antithesis echoed in the collection itself.

13th May 2024 Tate Modern, London. “Fashion design is a means to study, explore, interpret. After having expressed my ideas of desirability and sensuality, this is another piece of me, more romantic, more contradictory. I like taking something that we think we know and breaking away from its rules, taking it as far as it can go, without ever distorting it. Bringing it towards its opposite and finding harmony.” Sabato De Sarno

Dichotomies: rigor and extravagance, strength in delicacy, Englishness with an Italian accent. Echoes of inspirations, ideas of our experiences of a city and its culture expressed through the clothes we wear. Codes of dressing - of propriety and properness - here are subverted, used as a means of provocation. Short coats tailored in technical gabardine have a sharp precision, juxtaposed with wild chamomile flora motifs, a softness against the body. These flower embroideries are given new dimensions, executed in 3-D in laser-cut organza, assembled by hand, or hand-moulded shaped sequins, freely moving around the body. A feeling of protection and preciousness in outerwear set in opposition with chiffons, ruffles, lace - evening meeting everyday. Forever, a sense of tension between different ideas and ideals, different identities. A celebration of the individual.

Those contradictions can give different points of view - twisting archetypes, challenging preconceptions. The sartorial fuses with workwear, street with salon. The fragile can become tough - the iconic lobster-clasp is transposed to a feminine pearl necklace, both function and decoration, like a badge of belonging. Horsebit details across suede pay tribute to the House’s link with the equestrian world. Denim is relaxed, while gestures are transformed through flat shoes - ballerinas, creepers. Attitudes can be altered and perceptions shifted. Meanwhile, symbols of British style - tartans, tailoring - and emblems of Gucci are reconsidered, re-energized for a new generation, a different time. Plaids are reinterpreted as the most delicate embroidered bead fringe, their graphic shapes newly animated. Drawn from Italy of the early 70’s, the Gucci Blondie bag in leather or toile collides preciousness and pragmatism: held on the shoulder, its emblematic logo is leather-clad or enabled with a technique drawn from Gucci’s jewelry.

Embroideries, tailoring, leatherworking, the hand. Here, craft and fashion can unify, crossing culture – they help create a new form of universal language, a shared human vocabulary.