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To coincide with Gucci’s first show under new creative director Sabato De Sarno, Gucci’s “Dream Big” team — tasked with creating brand projects in the metaverse and Web3 — has dreamt up a first-of-its-kind global metaverse experience. Gucci will offer three virtual experiences, playing out across three global metaverse platforms simultaneously.
The virtual experiences enable Gucci to fully realise its vision for an outdoor show, even though the physical version was forced to move indoors due to inclement weather. The theme of the Friday afternoon show, called Gucci Ancora, or “again” (as in encore), was originally set in the streets surrounding the fine arts university Accademia di Brera. To further reinforce the theme of expression through art, Gucci also sponsored a gallery exhibition that is open to the public. This experience, down to recreated streets and buildings of Milan, has been interpreted in the digital realm for audiences in Roblox, Zepeto and China’s QQ, giving access to a global audience — without the rain.
In Roblox, Gucci has totally made over Gucci Town, the destination it opened in May 2022. It is now called Gucci Ancora, and the design is inspired by Milan’s Brera district, with a focus on creativity and artistic expression in the city. In a new room filled with artwork, interactive paintings transform into immersive challenges that unlock elements of the show and include other surprises, “easter eggs” (hidden elements of games) and secret portals.
The designer will step into the spotlight with his debut show as Gucci’s creative director on Friday, which will mark the beginning of Gucci’s next chapter.
This ethos has similarly been created in Zepeto, a virtual platform based in South Korea. This includes elements from the Brera district and the fashion show, where avatars can discover looks from the show, screened in a red theatre. (Gucci first built a presence in Zepeto in February 2021.) Finally, on Tencent-owned QQ, Gucci has created a virtual theatre in which visitors can watch the show. This follows a virtual experience created on QQ to coincide with this summer’s Gucci Cosmos exhibit. "Super QQ Show can be seen as China's equivalent to Meta's Horizon Worlds, except it's far more widely adopted,” says Charles Hambro, CEO of fashion metaverse insights platform Geeiq, which has worked with Gucci. “Fashion brands can express their values and showcase their products by engaging three-dimensional spaces like Super QQ Show in ways they couldn't possibly do through traditional social media channels."
The scale and timing of this project illustrate that metaversal and gaming experimentation are still a priority under De Sarno, who was tasked with “writing Gucci’s next chapter”. The brand has been a consistent early adopter among top luxury houses, and its latest strategy — recreating a physical experience in the digital realm — harkens back to its earliest initiative in the metaverse: in 2020, Gucci’s two-week Gucci Garden in Roblox, which was inspired by a physical experience in Milan, effectively set the bar for fashion metaverse success stories.
Gucci leadership has experienced a number of changes, in addition to the appointment of De Sarno, in the time since. Long-time CEO Marco Bizzarri — a vocal proponent of digital goods and Web3 experimentation — is slated to be leaving his role following this show, to be succeeded by former Kering Group managing director Jean-François Palus. Gucci has also named Alessio Vannetti as EVP and chief brand officer to “lead the team responsible for brand management and customer engagement, overseeing the brand’s strategy and image, communications, metaverse projects and customer engagement activities”.
In April, Robert Triefus stepped down; in addition to being the SVP of corporate and brand strategy, he was the CEO of the new business unit Gucci Vault, which houses its new business innovations, such as selling pre-owned pieces, items from other independent brands, and its metaverse and Web3 projects, which are now led by VP of metaverse ventures Micael Barilaro. Making a big splash in the metaverse at a time when all eyes are on Gucci means that while there might be new leadership and a new aesthetic, the innovation strategy seems to be consistent.
There have been other metaverse moments during Milan Fashion Week as well. Diesel, whose parent company OTB Group has a metaverse and Web3 division, expanded its digital goods by digitising 10 Diesel looks available to Meta’s avatars, in partnership with DressX. It also announced an ongoing partnership with Web3 music platform Public Pressure that gave show access to NFT holders. Many will be tuning in later today to watch Boss, whose fashion show experience is called “Techtopica”.
This is in contrast to New York Fashion Week, where metaverse and Web3 projects took a back seat to more practical tech tie-ups. In London, the most notable Web3 launch was the introduction of Syky’s digital fashion marketplace via an event in partnership with the British Fashion Council. Next week, all eyes shift to Paris, which has emerged as a Web3 fashion leader.
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