Gucci. Spring 2021 - Milan

(Images: Gucci.  All credit)

Gucci, under creative director Alessandro Michele is venturing further into a paradoxical realm.  He declined to show at the traditional fashion weeks, deciding after the 1st lockdown for COVID19, that he viewed fashion slowing down to a performance of two seasonal shows per year,  I could be assuming here, but this maybe also in retrospection of the extreme opulence seen from the runway shows in January this year, including Gucci, which were all set at the cusp of the worst pandemic that we have seen in over hundred years.  Time for some humility.  Italy, like the rest of the world, fumbled and rushed reopening in Spring for their tourist season, to only have the virus return again, while we all wait in earnest for the 2021 vaccines, that may reduce hospitalizations, but not crimp the virus as inculcations will have to be ongoing – meanwhile the death toll has climbed significantly.  The quarantines were a chance for retrospection and pause, to rethink, individually, how we view our nature, society and culture, aware that a virus does not discriminate, yet as human beings we have a tendency to multiply and divide culture over and over to justify a marketable position.  I did read Michele's fashion manifesto after he emerged from the first quarantine, even though we are amidst a redux once again, Michele outlined in a sincere and clear way that he wishes to steer the mega brand into a more creative dynamic that is grounded in participation, particularly the actors involved – his models and creative team, all having an input behind the designs.

In 2019, the thrift store and recycled styles became one of the focal trends in fashion. To which Michele cleverly set a precedence with by reworking the slick laser cut styles that Frida Giannini, Gucci's previous creative director instilled.  Michele has since brought in a redefining of the mix and match fashion under the luxury design banner, which could have been seen, at the beginning of his tenure, as a risky play which has clearly paid off, timed beautifully as sales have been exponential for the parent company Kering who owns Gucci. Yet, despite the clarity and sincereness of Michele's Gucci, one must also be fair it an observation that the world awaits China to come back on line, more so in their feverish desire for Western luxury items, whilst they built our everyday consumer products as the factory to the world.  The pandemic has all but changed all this, with or without a vaccine it may fail to restore the confidence in global trade and relations.  

Michele could be touching upon this change or the beginning of the end, with his Spring 2021 collection, titling the styles as “Ouverture of Something That Never Ended Collection” imprinting the terminology Eschatology as a theme, a term mostly used in monotheistic religions and also in science that is; the end of things, what will happen when the human race finally ends?  In astronomy, eschatology is prescribed as a nomenclature of the Sun's life cycle. Eventually in 6 billion years becoming a red giant and destroying the Earth in its process. Yet, scientifically there are no answers to what will be of humanity once it all ends. Philosophically, one can ponder at the possibilities.  So, Michele's latest collection although themed in its apocalyptic overtures has combined both men's and a ready-to-wear arrays into 146 pieces, set with a backdrop of Polaroid snapshots and a collection of short film/s, directed by Michele, in its ethereal dreamlike ghost story of a “Gucci” Thrift shop at the end-of-the-world. 

The collection is less detailed than previous seasons, with Michele's layering and intricacies remaining in tact, even though it is a vast ensemble, the styles aren't overwhelming.  The subtle is clearly there, corresponding with the said motifs. However, true to his impression as a designer, Michele has decided to instill a simplified version of the mega company, that by all its implementation works very well. It is a fantasy of an alternate reality, a place that maybe we all can relate to with or without the brand name.