Milan Fashion Week: Gucci's Alessandro Michele makes debut
42-year-old, a relative unknown when he was appointed, praised for recapturing the spirit of famed Italian fashion brand
Alessandro Michele strove for discontinuity in his Gucci debut, relaunching the brand with romantic flourishes against a hardened, urban background.
Michele was an unknown to much of the fashion world when he was named as sole creative director to one of the world’s best-known fashion brands last month. No more.
His debut collection, previewed Wednesday on the first day of Milan Fashion Week womenswear shows for next autumn and winter, displayed a confident break with the past, reasserting the double-G brand logo with prominent belt-buckle placings in the opening and closing looks but also introducing a new motif: birds in flight.
The collection snatched elements from the hastily assembled menswear collection, a team effort, shown last month after his predecessor Frida Giannini’s earlier-than-expected departure. There were the same elaborate poet bows on silken shirts and loose-fitting suits with contrast piping, nods to androgyny for both men and women.
Michele put his signature on the new collection with a pleated chiffon-y floral dress with a built-in cape; crinkled leather dresses in red and peacock blue and military-style coats with fur trim that had an antique feel. A red dress with pleated tiers was paired with flats for the perfect day-into-evening dress.