When Alessandro Michele stepped down as creative director for Gucci in November 2022, he left one of the buzziest jobs in fashion open—and considering just how large those shoes to be filled were, the Italian house did not seem in a hurry to replace him.
Gucci only recently announced Sabato de Sarno—yet another creative pulled from behind-the-scenes jobs, as Michele was—as the designer’s replacement in January; De Sarno won’t make his official debut as creative director until the Spring 2024 collection hits runways this September. That means the Gucci design team has temporarily taken the helm—and they’re using this as an opportunity to create palate cleansers in between creative visions.
For fall 2023, the Gucci design team put together a collection that seamlessly blended key elements of Michele’s Gucci with references to past house designers, like Tom Ford and Frida Giannini.
“A free expression founded in collective memories that blur the lines of time, it is an illustration of the beating heart of Gucci: the ecosystem of designers and artisans whose shared understanding of the House has passed down and evolved from creative to creative for over a century,” the show notes read. “In an exuberant conversation between past and future, the collection reflects on Gucci as a cultural constant and reinvigorates the influence of the visionaries that fronted it, paving the way for a new dimension to its heritage.”
That this was Michele’s team became abundantly clear through the collection: Look no further than the swinging crystal coat with orange tights, quirky fur-lined sandals, the double G-logo bras worn under sheer dresses or with leather shorts. Much of the eveningwear options, too, reflect Michele’s vision for Gucci in the lingerie-inspired details and slightly off-kilter silhouettes.
And while Gucci has referenced its Tom Ford era—which is one of the most celebrated house-creative director pairings of the modern fashion industry—before, here, it blended well with those Michele-era codes. The low-waisted velvet pants were paired with a fuzzy, cropped yellow sweater; the slinky button-down, wrinkled and worn with furry boots rather than sexy stilettos; the hip-slung skirts, too, were layered over neon-colored tights to reveal the waistband.
It’s somewhat surprising to see references to Frida Giannini’s Gucci—and yet, there they were, in the bright color palettes of a grass-green mohair sweater dress and clutched orange handbag, or in the teal and pink swatches of fur along a black overcoat. “The silhouette recalls Gucci’s erotic and glamorous form language of the 1990s and early 2000s, but paints it in the electrically sumptuous color palette of the 2010s,” the show notes added.
The entire Gucci creative team took a collective bow at the end of the show, and the standing ovation from the audience felt well-deserved. While on the more commercial end of the Gucci spectrum, the collection they put together will serve as the perfect transition into the brand’s next era.
