excerpt: Gucci. Spring/Summer 2026 - Milan Fashion Wee

 

"Can Demna rescue Gucci?  Or Trump's new found global corporatism, that'll do the trick? Pushing for an interest rate free world, where stock markets will rise exponentially unabated by tightening credit, just never mind the hyperinflation.  Actually, it is China's slump which has caused Gucci's sales via Kering, the holding company, to plunge 25% in 2025, with a frantic reshuffling of CEOs, kicking out Stefano Cantino after only one year, and replacing him with Francesca Bellettini, Kering's former Brand Manager.  Whilst Demna Gvasalia, jumped from the Kering owned Balenciaga after ten years straight into Gucci, to be its new creative director.  And so, thus the other question has to be asked.  Can Demna's antithesis fashion aesthetic, crafted from a decade of reworking Balenciaga to his own tune, be transplanted onto Gucci?

And what we have seen so far with his debut Spring, Summer 2026 collection for Gucci, is that Demna is steering a safer line over the risque, with elements of his backlash stylisations obviously evident, albeit very small.  With large dashes of Tom Ford 1990s esque sex appeal, ala the spillover from 1980s hedonism, which landed Ford's as the more serious imprint onto Gucci, able to sustain the creative direction for the iconic brand for 10 years from 1994 to 2004..."  

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(A. Glass 2025)

Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/09/gucci-springsummer-2026-milan-fashion.html

Fall/Winter 2026 review soon.