“Mum always told me about it: Los Angeles shines in its own magic, which is timeless; it’s a place that brushes the divinities, becoming a mythology of the possible” –
Alessandro Michele.
To watch Gucci’s love parade is to have the opportunity of looking inside Alessandro Michele’s soul, it’s a perfect way of describing his very own dreams and desires, is as personal as it can ever get in fashion. Dedicated to his mom, who was a production assistant in Rome and whom during Alessandro’s childhood always evoke the city of Los Angeles and Hollywood as the land of the dreams. So, what a better way to celebrate her life, his dreams and Gucci’s 100 years than taking the brand far away from its hometown to the city and place “Hollywood Boulevard”, that symbolizes glamour, success, extravaganza, possibilities and liberty.
Gucci Love Parade Fashion Show Looks
This fashion show showcased a perfect mix and match of different scenarios, it took us from old Hollywood glamour, evoking the glory of the golden Hollywood years, with satin and velvet suits perfectly completed with cowboy hats and glasses, and of course the muses such as Marylin Monroe, with long dramatic gowns some of them with shiny details, satin or even feather details that combined perfectly with the scenario chosen for the show. Then transporting us to the land of surrealism where things work in an opposite but perfect way, taking us back to the Elsa Schiaparelli’s fantastic world, famous for managing to mix surrealistic art with fashion, with hats that cover the eyes but have a hole for it and decorations around it, the use of the visible zippers that go all the way around the garment and also to a world were using sex toys as accessories is perfectly fine, chic and fashionable.
The sexual touches of the show were a perfect way to transmit a bunch of ideas in one, it was not only the sex toys, also the transparencies that allowed the clothes to show the corsets and some under garments, the nipples covered in stars and so on that took us back down the memory lane of the brand during Tom Ford’s time with his hedonistic style but re interpreted in the bold and artistic Michele’s vision. But the connections to the brands history did not end there, the great relationship of the brand with its divas was a perfect combination for this moment as the whole experience was packed with muses which Gucci and Alessandro Michele have worked with, with the public filled with personalities that included Gwyneth Paltrow, who once was a huge muse of the brand wearing the Gucci’s iconic red velvet suit, to Miley Cyrus who is the actual ambassador of Gucci’s fragrance Flora, and also having huge Hollywood icons as Macaulay Culkin, Phoebe Bridgers, Jodie Turner-Smith, St. Vincent, and Jared Leto on the runway, defying their roles.
Gucci love Parade Fashion Shown Looks
The use of symbols that speak more than words could be a good fit for this Love Parade experience, being faithful to his beliefs of going against standards of all kind, Alessandro also made sure he transmitted a strong message of inclusivity and freedom from all points of view. Defying beauty and society standards using models that do not respect the guidance of what is beautiful, models with diverse ethnicities, different sizes and the willingness to not distinguish gender is his way of saying that freedom is what we should be talking about in our society, especially as he thinks fashion is a mean humans use to tell who they really are. The last walk with all the models, makes a big reference to all the changes, movements and actual topics the society is going through, a real celebration of love, liberty and expression.
Gucci’s Love Parade, was definitely a walk to the past but with a hint of celebration for the future. It definitely brought a little bit of nostalgia to everyone who watched it, taking us back to the old Hollywood, not only through the clothes, but also with the chosen scenario, the models, the actors and actresses present in the runway and public, the music and scenario, but the way this nostalgia was presented as the best platform to look to the bright future we as a society and fashion have ahead of us, being able to understand and re interpret our history, to be able to create new stories filled with love, dreams and happiness
