Gucci cuts the camp and returns to crisp chic under new designer
The Gucci catwalk show was not just a new season, it was a factory reset. This was a turn-it-off-and-on-again moment for a brand that had stopped working. With a 15-minute showcase of crisp silhouettes and elegant accessories, seven years of Alessandro Michele’s exuberant camp were wiped clean.
The first look was a long black coat, plain except for Gucci signature redand-green stripes glimpsed on the back vent mid-stride. Some loafers had a chunky flatform sole, but lots were the classic slim-profile loafer seen in business class airport lounges all over the world but which hasn’t had a catwalk outing for a while. Kitten heels with sparkling chain-back slingbacks made for polished, grownup party shoes.
The new designer Sabato de Sarno began his career at Prada, and it was that aesthetic that shone in this collection, more than his 14 years at Valentino or his much-professed love of Tom Ford’s era at Gucci. Which is to say that the knee-length skirts with boxy jackets, the white tank tops and grey knits, the slip dresses with pointed courts were all in the Prada school of being almost boring, but not quite. What could have been dull was cut with such precision and confidence as to have bite. Diehard fans of Michele’s pearls and rainbows will be bored to tears, but De Sarno and his bosses at the French luxury group Kering, owners of Gucci, are banking on winning back a broader fanbase who have money to invest in loafers or a Jackie handbag.
A reset is always a risk. De Sarno wants the world to fall for Gucci again. His own notes on the collection read like a love letter rather than a moodboard, telling “a story of music and nights out, of sweat, dancing and singing … a story of family, of kissing, lots and lots of kisses”. He had planned to stage his debut on the streets of Milan, picturing city residents filling balconies to watch, but this sentimental vision was derailed by a storm which forced a last-minute relocation to Gucci’s modern headquarters. At the designer level, fashion has become less about selling clothes than about selling an entertainment experience, with clothes and accessories being souvenirs of that experience. De Sarno understands the need for connection, telling Vogue recently that when he first visited a Gucci store as a teenager, “I felt like my nephew does when I go to Disney with him now. It was emotional.” But these cool neutrals and clinical lines felt a little underpowered, if the intention was to tug the heartstrings, although they sent a clear message that Gucci is chic again.
In the post-pandemic luxury boom, Gucci has been left behind by the soaring sales of Dior and Louis Vuitton. Bags and shoes are where fashion fortunes are won and lost, and they were a clear focus on this catwalk. The crown jewels of Gucci were clearly on display, especially the crescent-shaped Jackie bag, which was launched as the Constance in 1961, but renamed three years later in honour of its most famous fan, Jackie Kennedy.
De Sarno, 40, comes from southern Italy, close to Naples, and lives between Rome, Milan and Brussels, with his lawyer husband, Daniele. He has given Gucci a new slogan: “ancora”, or “again” in English. “Ancora is a word that you use when your desire is not over yet, whether it’s a kiss or an embrace, or making love; it’s as if you own something and you want more of it,” the designer told Womenswear Daily this week.