A continuum of craft, taste and culture that passes through time, the fashion house is one that has many owners and guardians: craftspeople and artisans, creative directors and designers, communicators and customers, each with their own histories entwined. At once universal and personal, Gucci embodies a variety of expressions, with its clothing and accessories, its particular style, adapted and evolved through generational shifts, moving from then to now and to the future, traveling through time.
Today, the collection could be seen as foundational, that says something of Gucci in its codes and beliefs both past, present and future; things that have meant something to many, adopted and adapted in their own way.
A distinctive sense of Italian style, characterized by ‘sprezzatura’ – the perfectly imperfect, a studied effortlessness – a way of living and dressing that has been integral to Gucci's aesthetic from the beginning, is something that permeates the collection and its presentation. Since its inception, the Gucci world has always been one cinematic in its scope, with objects made for both men and women, stylized and sumptuous, character-driven and individually adaptable, and here, they are brought together once more.
Walking along the entwined dark green Interlocking G of the catwalk – standing for the founder, Guccio Gucci, the emblem celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year – the duality of men’s and women’s shows becomes a synergy and a whole. Like a double helix, yin and yang, or the lemniscate of infinity, each defines the other. Here, sartorial strictness is placed against playfulness, men’s tailoring fabrics traverse the entirety of the collection, transposed into the women’s world. Sharpness and delineation are embraced in suiting, yet at times are undercut by a flash of flesh, a volt of color, or the subversion of crepe de chine – here slubbed tweeds, a classic British men’s tailoring motif, are mirrored in the patterns found in sinuous crepe shirting and blouses. A dialogue of hard and soft continues in brushed mohair shirting, mother-of-pearl leathers, coated wools and bonded boucles – fabric experimentation abounds, embracing classicism and subversion. Color harmonies unite both womenswear and menswear in gradations of greens, greys, mauves and browns.
A synthesis of eras is embraced in terms of silhouette, from the late 1960s – the inception of Gucci ready-to-wear – traversing the decades since. Yet, in the amalgam from mid 1990s minimalism to the more recent ultra-maximal, Gucci motifs unite and the melange means something new. Unifying all is the Horsebit, perhaps the most recognizable of all Gucci motifs. It, too, celebrates an anniversary: seventy years of the Horsebit 1955 bag. From oversized to tiny, horsebits proliferate, a pop readymade appearing in jewelry, like in the flash of waist
chain of a deep scooped back dress or most often on leather goods. From the classic Horsebit 1955 bag transformed through new, ultra-soft construction via the giant Horsebit handle of the new slouched shoulder bag to the precise, ultra-luxe construction of the new Gucci Siena, fastening with a half Horsebit click. At its most comfortable, the motif is at home on slippers.
The music for the show, performed by a live orchestra, is an original score by the multi-award-winning composer and conductor Justin Hurwitz. Emphasizing the cinematic – Hurwitz has won two Oscars for his music – while amplifying emotion, his exclusive score celebrates the coming together of the women’s and men’s looks for the show.
