in lieu of Demna Gvasalia's debut for gucci in September 2025 for Milan fashion week, I will be posting all my 'Alessandro Michele' Gucci reviews of the last three years, before he was ousted from the iconic brand as creative director in November 2022. July 18th, 2020 "Gucci - Resort 2021"

(Images:  Gucci 2020)

It would have been hard pressed of Kering, the mega company that owns Gucci to adhere the passionate and for the most part romantic idealisms of Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele's quarantined manifesto, as a introspection to slow fashion down to only 2 shows a year.  Despite its written sincerity, Michele like millions of others, have emerged from the Northern Hemisphere lockdowns with a eager resolve, all the while, like myself and 4 million we have been reimposed into a part 2 lockdown of Melbourne, Australia (Northern Hemisphere) due to a miscalculation of the quarantine opening process, amidst the beginning of winter and the flu season.  In all said and done, is was the economic indicators that flashed red as a deep recession became a certainty across the globe, that had quarantines open up too fast and too soon.  

Resort 2021 has obviously been a lookbook affair, but it is also the prelude to the desire to return to the runway and I don't think Michele is any exception of that yearning, with his last extravagant Fall 2020 show in Milan, which was at the cusp of COVID-19 when it slammed into Europe, particularly Italy. Michele's first collection for Gucci post lockdown, is a massive ensemble at 133 pieces and accessories, that is clearly indicative of Kering's desperation in re-establishing its bottom line, when earnings have been crunched and profits were eaten alive by rising operational costs.  There is a hope that the Chinese, the world's luxury consumers, would come back on line, with media reports that China, were the virus originated, has beaten the viral outbreaks and is the only country, so far, that has not entered into a recession.  Should be taken with large doses of skepticism.  Still, Gucci has a cult of appeal that is undeniable, not just throughout Asia, but also the West, with Michele holding true to his expertise as a designer, I feel that he is on the right track with a reformation of his vision for Gucci, unfortunately it is not being seen with this Resort collection.  That could have been an opportunity, in light of his rethinking of fashion, to reduce the inundation and refine its direction.  

Instead, the whole array seems contrived and self indulgent, with a plethora of assistant designers and the like who either work with Michele or had some association with the collection, modeling the massive amount of styles on show.  Which is more akin to a overture for Gucci's later Spring 2021 women's collection, so the creative moodboard of Polaroid shots is a studio in-joke rather than a serious presentation.  But nevertheless would herald, at least from a corporate side of things, the beginning in trying to corner the market again, in what many perceive as reviving the old normal.  Which will lead to a push and pull between the emotional responses of Michele's Gucci, while in the shadow of a changing globalised world, may only be revealed in its token appeal.    

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(A.Glass 2020)