The Italian house and Adidas teamed up and took to a mirrored runway for its latest show.
Let’s be real, when it comes to the biggest names in fashion, no one manages to cause quite the buzz that Gucci does. And, after the debut of its Exquisite Gucci collection in Milan last week, this fact has only been confirmed.
With the king and queen of the zeitgeist, aka Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, perched front row, magic washed over the show even before it commenced. And, the catwalk only worked to further this. Providing an enchanting array of optical illusions, Creative Director Alessandro Michele’s catwalk boasted a row of figure-distorting mirrors akin to those of a theme park funhouse. With Alessandro looking to Vincent de Beauvais’ Speculum majus, which claims that a mirror is a tool from which to gain clarity and transparency, and him wanting to disregard the restrictive notion of ‘exact vision’, viewers were treated to a blurred-yet-reflective background which incited limitless wonder and creative vision in those lucky enough to witness it.
When discussing the mirrored runway and its meaning, Alessandro explained, “I use the metaphor of the magical mirror to approach the phantasmagorical power of fashion. A sacred power that radiates from the surface of the fabrics. And there I work, on this tactile surface, through cross-references, alterations, loopholes and grafts. Juxtaposing worlds and meanings. Altering the stability of perception. Manipulating and magnifying the existing. Through these interventions, I celebrate the clothes as real optical labs: magical machines that can give birth to fairy tales of metamorphosis and re-enchantment.”
Messaging and optics aside, there was one other defining presence at Gucci’s most recent show, and that was its collaboration with Adidas. Continuing on with the legacy of the house’s Balenciaga-hacked Aria collection, Gucci called on the infamous sports name to lend its classic triple stripe patterning to the line as the refined and sporty codes of both institutions collided in an unapologetic manner. Blended and juxtaposed, the collection masterfully managed to maintain that essence of old-school Hollywood glamour that has become synonymous with Gucci, all the while leaning into the causal with corduroy suits and baseball caps. A truly exquisite mix, some would say.
