Gucci spring/summer 2023

Gucci brand is undoubtedly known as one of fashion’s greatest giants. For many, it is a veritable synonym for opulence, elegance and timeless beauty. The Italian fashion house owes its wide audience to the highest quality with which successive collections of clothes and accessories are presented, sewn by hand in Italy. The name Gucci can also be associated with a fair number of scandals within the company and within the family, which at one time brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy.

Today, Gucci is a huge creative force in the fashion industry, its actions are vigilantly followed not only by the entire industry, but also by us, ordinary consumers. It is this scale of fashion empires that, when presenting their latest collections, in a way show us what we will wear in a given season. Trend creation is therefore an essential, though not the only, role of the brand. Gucci, on the one hand, very boldly intervenes in the fashion world, showing more and more innovative and surprising designs, but on the other hand, it constantly manifests to the world its own aesthetics adored by are thousands.

This fashion approach is identified with the brand’s current creative director Alessandro Michele, who has overseen Gucci’s global image since 2015. Michele himself began his career designing accessories for the well-known Italian fashion house Fendi. His talent was noticed by Tom Ford, who step by step introduced the young designer to the world of Gucci’s London design studio. Over the next few years, he held very different positions in the company, until he finally became the leader of the product range and was appointed creative director.

“Gucci Twinsburg”

Held every six months Milan Fashion Week is one of the most important fashion events and thus a unique opportunity to present new solutions, as it turns out, not only in terms of clothing. The world’s biggest brands outdo each other in terms of the most unusual convention of the show and every season each of them presents a real spectacle combining creation with scenography, light and music.

Gucci at this year’s Fashion Week in Milan once again shocked the fashion world by presenting its new collection in a rather unusual way. This is because the brand’s show featured as many as 68 pairs of identical twins. The designer initially created two identical shows, in which models wearing the same outfits walked divided by a wall. Participants in the show were completely unaware that a similar performance was taking place next door, and the ruse was only revealed to the audience when the wall was raised and the identically dressed twins joined each other on the catwalk holding hands.

Interestingly, out of 68 pairs of identical twins, three pairs are from Poland. On the catwalk we could see the faces of: Oskar and Kacper Grzelak, Oliwia and Natalia Dziadul, and Maria and Malgosia Dmitruk, who are not normally associated with the world of fashion and modeling.

Like two drops of water

The aura surrounding the show was truly magical, and the visually stunning concept, created around the idea of otherness and identity, delighted the audience and stirred up a lot of positive emotions. What inspired the Alessandro to create such an extraordinary show? As it later turned out, this topic is very close to the designer because his mother and aunt are also monozygotic twins, and as he himself has emphasized many times, in childhood he addressed them both as “mom”.

No wonder, then, that the designer dedicated his work to his mother Eralda and her sister Giuliana with the inspiring words, “All twins from the moment they are born are very aware that they are not the center of the universe. They learn to live with their other half, their copy. The limits of their corporeality have nothing to do with the limits of their being. I dedicate the collection to my twin mothers Eralda and Giuliana, who were only able to understand life because of the presence of the other.”

Alessandro Michele has been fascinated by twins for years. His penchant for sameness can be seen, for example, at this year’s Costume Institute Metropolitan Museum gala, which featured an appearance from the Jared Leto, styled in exactly the same way. The same motif also ran through Gucci’s latest campaign, which used the timelessly creepy Grady sisters, twins in matching blue frilly dresses. Phenomenally, then, it was also embraced during this year’s Milan Fashion Week.

Of course, the models appearing in the show were not 100% identical. The creative director of Gucci was more concerned with creating a certain illusion of perfect harmony and symmetry. And it certainly succeeded, the identical styles were perfected down to the smallest detail, and the models were made as similar as possible.

Clothes, “Ready to wear”

Moving away from the twins theme itself, it’s worth noting that the spring and summer 2023 collection itself is certainly one of the most interesting. On the catwalk one could find plenty of inspiration and references, which will be mentioned in a moment. The clothes were presented in the convention of,, Ready to wear, that is, geared towards everyday wear by the brand’s consumers. And while, of course, some styles were part of catwalk-only fashion, others could undoubtedly become part of the permanent assortment.

What motifs were most prominent? Did Gucci go for minimalism this time, or was it overly eccentric?Let’s follow in the footsteps of the,,Twinsburg” collection.

As every season, there was no shortage of raw tailoring, which is a nod to the Tom Ford era, and a classic white set from the 1970s, which reminded us all why Gucci became famous. The eclectic suits were emblematic of the brand’s aesthetic. However, it was interesting to combine the suit with underwear signed with the timeless logo. This time unconventional elements were used, such as sock garters applied to the legs of the suit pants, which subtly distorted their straight cut.

In contrast, there were also sportswear from the 1980s with distinctive square shoulders in metallic leather, embroidered skirts, mini dresses and gorgeous capes in pink and powder blue. The audience also did not miss the numerous motifs taken from Asian countries. Models were dressed in creations resembling Japanese traditional kimonos. Also, symmetrically made ornaments such as long long earrings and headdresses for many seemed to refer to ancient civilizations.

The accessories themselves appeared in abundance. In addition to the already mentioned giant necklaces and earrings, the show featured handbags reminiscent of the Mogwais – mythical characters from the 1984 film Gremlins, and most of the models wore glasses equipped with chains hanging almost to their shoulders.

As we can see in this show first of all decided on design, a variety of motifs both taken from nature and eastern cultures intertwined vividly with a range of colors, or lush flowers on chiffon dresses. Gucci bet on contrasts, creations typically elegant preserved in the convention of haute couture appeared right next to those much more extravagant and avant-garde. An explosion of colors, ideas and energy – such is the new collection of the fashion empire.

, “Fuori”

This is not the end of references. In one of the stylizations the first fiddle played denim men’s dungarees with embroidered Italian, “Fuori”, which is a reference to a magazine published in the 70s ,, Fronte Unitario Omosessuale rivoluzionario italiano”. The magazine, in turn, was edited by the country’s first homosexual organization fighting against the most right-wing right-wing government elected in Italy after World War II. Thus, it was an expression of opposition to the government’s efforts to threaten the LGBTQIA+ community. Alessandro, who was very close to the events at the time, comments on them as follows: “The elections show that freedom is being eroded. There was a time when we achieved a lot, but now it’s very complicated. We shouldn’t take anything for granted.” This is a remarkably neat smuggling of political context into fashion, which designers often reach for.

The new Gucci collection is likely to be appreciated not only for its incredible innovation and specialized tailoring, but the particular attention of the audience is also strongly drawn to the designer’s personal references. Following the brand’s previous collections, one can see that Michele’s work for Gucci has always reflected his own life, but this year’s was his most personal to date. He spoke not only about his twin mothers, but about the long process he went through in therapy, trying to understand his own duality.

All of this shows how deep the message was behind the Under the slogans, “duality”, “identity”, “reflection”, that were important to Michell when designing the collection. At the same time, this entire show during Milan fashion week shows both consumers of the brand and the industry as a whole that Gucci, being a de facto huge clothing conglomerate, has not lost the fashion spirit it has conveyed over the years.