YOUNG MONEY

In this edition of YStyle’s Look of the Week, we look to Alessandro Michele’s signature magpie aesthetic and his vision for Gucci cruise 2018 aptly called ‘Renaissance Rock ‘n’ Roll.’

For Gucci’s cruise collection 2018, creative director Alessandro Michele brought the house back to home and hearth: the Palatina Gallery at Pitti Palace, Florence. Inspired by the Renaissance and steeped in historic Greco-Roman motifs, the venue was the perfect backdrop to the label’s continued love affair with magpie eclecticism; the clothes walked down a velvet-corded corridor filled with wall-to-wall art from Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio, and so much more. What better context to enjoy Gucci’s wearable art?

Cruise 2018 sums itself up in a 115-strong runway of fresh propositions for Gucci’s brand of maximalism: rich embroideries mixed with gilded brocades, lurex knits shot with opulent embellishments and detailing — sequined reptiles, gold laurels and lyres as motif, soft-sculpted drapes and logo-stamped furs. Standout pieces include the house’s continued foray into logomania by way of new slogan tees that read “Guccify Yourself” and “Guccification”; a play on the pervasive copycat culture and bootleg reappropriation cascading throughout the runways.

Premiered to a front row of A-list Gucci muses including Jared Leto, Sir Elton John, musicians Soko and Beth Ditto, Kirsten Dunst, Dakota Johnson and so many more, Alessandro Michele presents his signature irreverence for cruise 2018. The YStyle woman this week is inspired by contemporary kitsch and an outsize take on accessorizing. It’s high-shine dressing with all the right glitz. Take your cues from Gucci’s misfit cast of characters on the runway; be yourself. The road to success may just be found on the path of excess.