Gucci and Palace Collaborate for Vault
● The co-branded collection drops on Gucci Vault and at pop-ups on Oct. 21.
MILAN
— Gucci's hype-chasing approach to collaborations is hitting British streetwear.
The luxury house's creative director Alessandro Michele is teaming with Palace Skateboards and its founders Levent Tanju and Gareth Skewis for a collection dropping exclusively on Gucci Vault, the Italian label's experimental online space launched in 2021 that's dedicated to vintage, curation of designer items and special drops.
After the Adidas x Gucci collaboration for fall presented on the runway last February, Gucci is again toying with its logo and house codes, reimagining them for a youthful audience and adding the emblems and logo of Palace.
Deliberately taking cues from the street, as the house put it, the collection blends references to rodeo, skate, soccer, moto-riding and clubbing styles.
It debuts following speculation in recent days on online media outlets and social media accounts devoted to streetwear about the two teaming up. The Italian house revealed the collaboration on Instagram.
The collection comprises clothing for all genders and includes Palace's debut womenswear pieces.
In a blend of high and low, the pieces combine Gucci's double G logo with Palace's Tri-Ferg triangle or with interspersed Ps — the Gucci Palace monogram.
Centered on the archetypes of Palace's streetwear-leaning gear, the lineup includes soccer T-shirts, donning both brands' logos; denim, as in jeans covered in double Gs and embellished with crystals; logoed canvas miniskirts and bras in bubblegum pink, baby blue or camouflage. A shearling jacket and two-piece motorbike suit complement the ready-to-wear offering.
In the accessories range, Gucci's horsebit loafers bear a dangling P-shaped charm while Palace's triangle logo is added as a charm to a tote bag in lacquered red. Duffle Gucci bags are reinterpreted in a pyramid shape.
Taking the collaboration a step further, Palace and Gucci teamed with motorbikemaker Moto Guzzi to introduce a limitedrun V7 motorbike available in 50 pieces. It combines Palace's woodland camouflage with Gucci's monogram-embossed leather.
A co-branded Palace and Gucci safe is also part of the offering, produced by Conforti and available in 10 items globally; it nods to Gucci's travel trunks.
The collection hits the Vault online space on Oct. 21, which will be flanked for the first time by a brick-and-mortar component, with pop-up stores bowing in Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Osaka and Bangkok.
As part of its rollout the collection will take over Palace retail units in London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, marking the first time Palace has allowed another brand to reconfigure its spaces.
The collection's launch is flanked by campaign imagery and a video, directed by Max Siedentopf. The filmmaker translated the clash of identities the collection stands for by delivering surrealist images where humans and aliens mingle poolside, Earth is being taken over by a different-planet civilization, ravers sip cocktails with posh ladies and E.T.-like creatures enjoy a bath.
Michele has been increasingly toying with “hacking” projects, lending Gucci codes to other creatives and borrowing those of the partners. Cue the Balenciaga and Gucci tie-up unveiled last year and the Adidas x Gucci partnership.
Founded in 2009 by Tanju and his crew of skaters including Skewis, Palace initially sold decks and clothes with its triangular logo in London skate shops, eventually gaining traction among high-end retailers, including End Clothing, Maxfield and Dover Street Market.