Getting Back to Gucci (Published in YourMag October)

A new, glamorous era at Gucci has begun, and it feels… familiar. 

Like an Italian starlet driving their Ferrari feels familiar. Like a big pair of sunglasses and an even bigger fur coat, Gucci’s SS26 show was pure, unfiltered Italian chic. Under a new iconoclastic creative director, the renowned house of Gucci is tapping into a familiarity that is flexible, formative, and crucially, fashionable. It makes sense that after years of declining public interest, Gucci’s idea of revitalization is to go back to what makes Gucci… Gucci. 

It’s no secret that Gucci has recently lost its way. Gone are the days when nascent SoundCloud artists would flaunt Gucci bags and double-G monogrammed tracksuits. Those days went out the window when fashionable society began to question the logo-heavy designs that dominated an era of high-fashion streetwear. As labels like Bottega Veneta and Loewe embraced quiet luxury (to mass adulation), Gucci doubled down on styles that weren’t coveted anymore. Their previous creative director, Sabato De Sarno, made a valiant effort to shake things up, but the house has still been nosediving in profits for months, with last quarter’s sales dropping 25% (Vogue Business).

Enter fashion’s resident disruptor: Demna Gvasalia. You love him. You hate him. You love to hate him. Readers may have done a double take; Demna at Gucci? Yes, that Demna. When the hiring was announced last March, the idea of the mononymic Georgian designer joining Gucci sent seismic shockwaves through the fashion industry at large. Plenty of names can be thrown into the ring when it comes to nonconformist fashion, but it doesn’t take an expert to know Demna frequently takes the cake. Whether at his own sardonic label Vetements, or during his stint as creative director of Balenciaga, Demna has never shied away from pushing boundaries. Think Kim Kardashian wearing a skintight dress made of caution tape. Think the cartoonishly oversized “Steroid” boots from Balenciaga’s SS23 collection. As the picture starts to form, it seems like Demna would be better suited for a directorship at KidSuper or maybe even Margiela. But Gucci? Demna’s appointment as creative director of Italy’s most valuable heritage brand (Statista) marks a clear turning point for Gucci: It’s time to make some serious changes. With the industry’s most chaotic designer at the helm, it came as a real shock when the debut was decidedly restrained.   

This all begs one glaring question: why did Demna choose to play it so safe? Presented not on a runway but at a red-carpet short film premiere, Gucci’s SS26 collection was almost too reserved for a designer so famous for inviting mayhem. For the most part, the tailoring stayed self-contained to suits, furs, and leather products featuring the famous Gucci monogram. There was virtually none of the highly-anticipated absurdity that Demna tends to bring. Of course, there were some occasionally tasteful Demna-isms—mostly exaggerated shoulders and dramatic silhouettes—But in its entirety, the show was more by-the-books than not. 

This might indicate that Demna is more interested in taking his time at Gucci. Instead of arriving with a spectacular firework show, perhaps Demna has decided that it’s better to get back to the basics. That’s certainly what this collection felt like: An homage to the simplest models of Italian style. 

The collection is based on thirty-seven core characters who loosely embody various archetypes of Italian culture. There's Incazzata: the perpetually “pissed-off” fashionista. There’s Cocco di Mamma, or “mama’s boy.” There’s the Diva, Narcisista, and the dazzlingly pink Principessa. All these characters serve as a funhouse mirror, which Demna uses to poke fun at Italian couture, the fashion world, and Gucci itself. The fits don’t need to be physically exaggerated when they already exude heavy don’t-talk-to-me energy. 

Again, Demna returns to the basics as a means of guiding himself into his new role at Gucci. Where his predecessor, De Sarno, tried to capture the early days of Gucci, Demna has offered something close, but decidedly different. By delving into the literal identity of the brand, Demna is giving Gucci the respect it deserves—the respect that has drastically waned in recent years. He is reminding us just how stylish a gown and a good headscarf can really look. It’s not a direct copy of the past, but a careful taste of what is to come. A comically oversized blue coat, complete with a matching blue fur collar, likely hints at Demna’s eventual plans, but for now, he seems content with offering the world a simple amuse bouche—an ode to pure, classic Gucci.