Gucci Tales Of San Francisco

Gucci is heading west.

The Italian fashion house will stage its cruise 2021 collection in the City and County of San Francisco on May 18, although the precise venue is still being kept under wraps.

The brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele has chosen the American city for its history as a center of liberal activism and for being a cultural melting pot “where antidotes to discrimination have been cultivated, sowing the seeds for freedom of self-expression for many,” read a statement.

This approach mirrors Michele’s vision for the brand, which has been hinging on diversity and promoting the right to be oneself since he took the creative helm in 2015.

Over the last five years the designer has taken the brand’s cruise collections to different locations, all historically and culturally charged. These included the Dia Art Foundation in New York; the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey in London; the Palatine Gallery in Palazzo Pitti in Florence; the Promenade Des Alyscamps in Arles and, last year, the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

The cruise 2021 season is shaping up as another globetrotting marathon, with Giorgio Armani kicking off the calendar staging its fashion show in Dubai in April, although the precise date of the event has not been disclosed.

An Italian affair will follow, with Chanel heading to the island of Capri on May 7 and Dior staging its next cruise collection on May 9 in Lecce, located in the region of Puglia where Maria Grazia Chiuri is originally from.

After Gucci, the fashion crowd will move east as Prada will unveil its cruise 2021 collection in Japan on May 21, while Max Mara has chosen Saint Petersburg to stage its runway event on May

25. — SANDRA SALIBIAN