ICONS, EMBROIDERY & ECSTASY: MICHELE’S GUCCI LEGACY
There are fashion eras that pass quietly, and then there are those that roar—leaving behind a trail of velvet, embroidery, and unapologetic eccentricity. Alessandro Michele's Gucci was the latter: a maximalist, poetic explosion that redefined not only a heritage house but also an entire generation's fashion vocabulary.
When Michele took the reins as Creative Director in 2015, he pulled Gucci out of its sleek, sexed-up Tom Ford shadows and into an entirely new narrative: one brimming with romanticism, nostalgia, and fearless self-expression. For me, it was an era that spoke directly to the soul—a glorious rebellion against minimalism, where androgyny thrived and beauty knew no boundaries.
Every collection felt like stepping into a dreamworld curated by a bibliophile who moonlights as a time traveler. Victorian ruffles met '70s glam rock. Granny chic rubbed shoulders with Roman mythology. It was vintage store meets couture salon—and somehow, it worked. Better yet, it made us all believe we could wear a silk pussy-bow blouse with a lion-head ring and make it fashion.
Michele didn't just design clothes; he created characters. Each runway show was a storybook come to life. Models walked with blank stares and adorned heads, carrying replicas of their own heads (Fall 2018) or navigating runways that looked like museums, surgical theaters, or ancient ruins. It was theater. It was philosophy. It was fashion unchained.
And the accessories? Instant classics. From the rebirth of the Dionysus bag to the resurgence of the horsebit loafer and the rise of the geek-chic oversized glasses, Michele's accessories were more than adornments—they were cultural signposts.
As we move into a new chapter of Gucci under Sabato De Sarno, there's a nostalgic tug in my heart for the Michele era—for the unapologetic weirdness, the intellectual glamour, the storytelling. It was an era that reminded us fashion is not just about clothes, but about identity, imagination, and joy.
Here's to Alessandro Michele—the conjurer of whimsy, the architect of dreams, and forever my favorite chapter in the Gucci story.