The list of men who flock to Michele for suiting,
loafers, baubles, and kerchiefs seems endless, in fact,
and on it are names as diverse as Swiss tennis star
Roger Federer and Harlem designer and hip-hop
world legend Dapper Dan. What’s more, many of these
men are equally as likely to sport a Gucci dress as they
are a Gucci loafer. At the 2019 Metropolitan Museum
of Art’s Costume Institute Gala, Leto showed up wear-
ing a Michele-designed red evening gown and carry-
ing a model of his own head as an accessory. Michele’s
version of masculinity has become fashion’s predom-
inant one: an idea not just of men in skirts but of men
embracing loveliness, textural richness, and glam-
our—things that in the 20th century were reserved
largely for women. Gucci’s celebrity friends and col-
laborators are helping to popularize this aesthetic
in the mainstream and, as a result, allowing the
designer to push himself further and further in restyl-
ing the modern man.
Michele lets out a big, bright laugh at the recollec-
tion of Leto’s Met-gala look. He has just returned from
summer holiday and is gazing down past his chestnut
locks into the FaceTime screen, tapping his bulky rings
on the table in Gucci’s Rome design o∞ces for e≠ect.
“Jared is a person who loves to experiment,” Michele
says. “When I saw him with the evening dress, I thought
that it was so unbelievably beautiful. At the end of two
days of big conversations—on the phone, in his room,
during a dinner—I said, ‘Choose the red dress with the
head. You will be like a Shakespearean character.’”
The Bard is an apt reference for a designer who
stages his runways more like theatrical events thantypical catwalk fodder. It’s a precedent set by his
debut collection, for fall 2015. At that time, Michele
was acting as an interim creative director, given just
five days to make something to present on the brand’s
Milan runway after the unceremonious departure
of Gucci’s then creative team. What he dreamed up
was nothing short of revelatory. The flaxen-haired
model Hugo Goldhoorn opened the show in a red
silk pussy-bow blouse and pooling lank trousers.
Bracelet-sleeved suits in deep emerald, Young Turk
velvet-trimmed coats, and a new iteration of Gucci’s
banker-bro loafers, stripped of their backs and lined
with Einsteinian tufts of kangaroo fur, followed.
Less than five days later, Michele (and that pussy-
bow blouse) was o∞cially appointed the creative
director of Gucci. Five years later, the shift in mens-
wear started by Michele is seismic, with that first
eerily pretty ensemble predicting a half-decade of
luxurious revolt.
Michele designs both the menswear and womens-
wear collections simultaneously, pulling ideas from
one to the other. “It’s more interesting, sometimes, to
work on the menswear. You can really shout, because
menswear is more rigid,” he says. “When you try to
manipulate the codes of a man’s wardrobe, you can
do something really new. It’s pretty interesting.
I started thinking about an idea of beauty that,
for me, it doesn’t belong to men or women. It’s almost
the same; that’s why I put a few men’s looks on women
and the reverse. You can be more masculine showing
your femininity.”
In the five years since the fateful show that ordained
Michele as one of fashion’s utmost provocateurs, he has
staged an overthrow of power in the world of menswear
by fashioning new male identities. Michele’s conquest
occurs with a stitch in place of a sword. That stitch can
hold a hem flared out, so when Donald Glover slinks
across a stage, he does so with a glamazon kick. It can
hold the shoulder of a jacket tight and high, to relay
a schoolboyish charm, or it can secure a button on a
silk blouse—even if it looks best undone. All together,- A$AP Rocky’s babushka
is equal parts rap legend
and Queen Elizabeth II. - Elton John is more than
just a Gucci muse—he lent
one of his album covers to
the brand for a 2018 collab. - Tom Hiddleston does
tradition with a twist in
Gucci’s tailoring campaign.- Soko proves a wide
lapel works on ladies too. - Alessandro Michele
and Jared Leto see eye to
eye on menswear. 6. Harry
Styles channels the New
Romantics at the 2019 Met
gala. 7. Omari Hardwick,
Dapper Dan, and 21 Savage
in custom Gucci x Dapper
Dan looks at the 2019 Met
gala. 8. Gucci’s tailoring
is so ace, even the queen
of ruffled dresses, FlorenceWelch, is into it. 9. Styles
and a farm friend model
Gucci’s advanced menswear.- Donald Glover in
caramel-hued Gucci at the
Solo: A Star Wars Story
NYC premiere. 11. This toile
suit was one of Styles’s
earliest Gucci flexes, from
all the way back in 2015.- Hugo Goldhoorn debuted
Michele’s vision to the world
for fall 2015.
thank alessandro michele for one of the greatest
styling cues of 2019—A$AP Rocky’s monarchist
silk babushkas. The 47-year-old creative director
of Gucci introduced a similar style at his 2017
women’s cruise show, held in the chapel of
Westminster Abbey, as a straight-up homage to
the staid scarves of Queen Elizabeth II herself.
Michele is also the source of Ryan Gosling’s ’50s
prom shirt at the 2017 Academy Awards, Donald
Glover’s groovy velvet suits, and the ongoing Jared
Leto–saince that has turned the musician-actor
away from off-duty-Angeleno style and into a
gentleman of the Canyon, caftans and all.
“The shift in menswear startedby Michele is seismic, withthat first eerily pretty ensemblepredicting a half-decade ofluxurious revolt.”62 GQ.COM NOVEMBER 2019
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