It’s a sign of Gucci’s current omnipotence in luxury that it no longer concerns itself with the mainstream fashion schedule. The mega-brand didn’t deign to partake in Milan Fashion Week last month, but instead showed in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.
There is no one more Old Hollywood in fashion than Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director. This is a man whose middle name might as well be “marabou”, so strong is the Sunset Boulevard aesthetic in his multifaceted design world. He grew up obsessed with cinema, introduced by his mother, who worked at Cinecittà in Rome, the Italian equivalent to Hollywood. So for his models to stalk across the star-spattered sidewalk known as the Walk of Fame, with the Chinese Theatre as a backdrop and a Gucci-clad Gwyneth Paltrow on the front row, was a kind of homecoming.
Among the line-up of models were actors such as Macaulay Culkin and Jared Leto. The latter is one of the stars of next month’s eagerly awaited film House of Gucci. This Ridley Scott-directed biopic tells the story of the murder in 1995 of Maurizio Gucci, the then head of the house (played by Adam Driver), by his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga). The two released trailers for the film mix high fashion with low morals. “I don’t consider myself a particularly ethical person,” says Reggiani/Gaga, clad in blood-red ski wear.
It was all about high fashion for Michele the other night. And what a joyous line-up, from the beaded and be-feathered floor-sweeper evening gowns to the satin crooner suits, from the spangled headdresses to the cowboy hats. Here was the best kind of explosion in a dressing-up box, the rainbow-hued more-is-more love child of Gloria Swanson and Warren Beatty in their respective primes.
Any star on the hunt for a red-carpet number for the coming awards season need look no further. Yet for all the boldface theatricality there were — when you stripped away the layers of styling — plenty of pieces that would work in the real world. It’s that combination of fantasy and reality that has made Michele one of the most successful designers of his generation.
