LUXE TREND 31
DESIGNING LUXURY SERIES, ALESSANDRO MICHELE
Alessandro Michele was born in Rome and after studying costume design at Rome’s Academy of Costume and Fashion he joined the Italian knitwear brand Les Copains. Michele also worked under Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi at Fendi. Tom Ford hired him to design bags for Gucci in 2002. In 2011 he become associate designer to Frida Giannini, before being appointed Creative Director of the brand in January 2015. Since then, Michele has been given free reign to bring his idiosyncratic sense of vintage style to the Italian fashion house.
His highly original vision was recognized by the British Fashion Council, which awarded Michele the 2015 International Designer Award at the British Fashion Awards. In 2016, he was awarded the International Award by the CFDA ‘for his creative contribution to the international fashion stage’, and the British GQ Designer of the Year Award.
Michele is responsible for all of Gucci’s collections, product categories, and the company’s global brand image.
In a couple of short years, Michele, has been able to rework the entire visual language of Gucci. Frida Giannini’s creative tenure can be seen as a virtual continuation of Tom Ford. Michele’s Gucci is a brand of meta-vintage eccentricity and artistic exuberance.
Stylistically, Michele has turned Gucci away from its image of a sleek and hyper-sexual luxury. Michele has been able to rework and extend the other visual vocabulary of that 1970s that included bell bottom trousers and platform shoes. As a result, Gucci’s collections currently echo collections from the 1970s by Zandra Rhodes, Jean Muir, Vivienne Westwood and Ossie Clark, yet interpreted through the lens of a skillful Italian stylist of this decade.
The vast technical capabilities of the house are pushed to create artful, individualistic products that defy expectations. They feel innovative and familiar at the same time. Michele is able to infuse his creative brilliance in all aspects of the Gucci image, helping to refuel desirability for the brand's products, across all categories.
Michele gave an interview to Vogue where he explains his creative process:
“I start from an idea. I’m obsessed with trompe l’oeil — the idea of something that is existing and is not existing. I become mad when I work. It’s like a fever that grows; I don’t need to choose just one thing. The team work from a story — a book, an exhibition, the internet — it’s like a movie. At the beginning, they were not really sure about what I was doing, but now they are in a sort of nonsense world. When you brave the change you can make amazing things happen.”
Judging by Gucci’s financial results, it has been a well-conceived strategy. During a recent visit the New York Gucci store was busy with buyers of all ages and ethnicity. A group of young women from Japan seemed particularly taken by a line of blouses that were part of the men’s collection. Gucci is now a brand equally popular among teenage girls in Akihabara as it is among glamour skaters and rappers in LA.
In Gucci’s world, as envisioned by Alessandro Michele, the future of luxury is the ability to bend gender preferences and allow for the broadest possible palette of creative choices. This is a concept originated in the1970s and Michele is reworking it for this decade. It will be interesting to watch its evolution and longevity.