What do you do after a breakup? Google has a few tips: phone a friend; set a few limits; find a new routine; and maybe even embrace the new. Yet, if you are deep into the trenches of self-help articles, you may realise that there is only one trick every article will reiterate — give it some time. You will need to be patient if you are ever going to get over a failed relationship.
While Gucci is set to make great efforts in moving on from its separation with former creative director Sabato de Sarno, a dealbreaker announced just three weeks from its scheduled showing in Milan Fashion Week, its FW25 runway yesterday clearly showed a desire to move ahead without a major overhaul — for now at least.
And in the spirit of all transitional collections that have come and gone, we were given a glimpse of the house’s collections that utilised only its archive for inspiration, exposing what could come next while speculations brew thicker on who will lead Gucci next.
Designed and conceived by its studio team, the house has turned its recent split-up into a game of opposites. The fashion was far from minimalist, drawing inspiration from the 60s when the house first conceived its first ready-to-wear collections, to the 90s (arguably its golden years), the maximalism of its collections in the late 2010s. There were nods to mod, with details such as faux fur dyed in bright hues gleaming from afar.
For a studio collection with no creative leadership in sight, it felt unrestrained and unpretentious, but far from what Gucci can offer to its clients.
There were no traces of the recently established house signature Ancora red too. Instead, they utilised the other emblematic colour in its logo — the Gucci green — in all aspects of the show’s branding from the set down to the invitations. Right on here, the message is clear: Gucci is determined to move on.
But for Gucci to do so, it will take much more than an afterthought of the house’s abilities, and a reinvention should be enough to turn heads once again as it did before.
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