GQ USA - 11.2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1
T h e
Fix

Fashion

characteristics: sensual, coy, intellectual, menac-
ing. It’s a sharp pivot from Gucci’s last heyday,
in the ’90s, when Tom Ford popularized hot-bod
hedonism with bare chests and tight trousers.
But to call Michele’s fey fashion radical in the
year 2019 is to misunderstand the designer’s
mission. The clothes beloved by both Sir Elton
John and Snoop Dogg are, even at their wild-
est, classically minded. “I understood,” Michele
says, thinking back to his first show, “that there
is nothing more new than an old beautiful code.”
He continues: “Dress codes belong to politics;

No one is a better embodiment of the Michele

his friend and collaborator. “He is so relaxed in his
body, and completely open to listen to himself. He
likes to play with dress, with hair. I think that he is
really the incarnation of a pop icon of the next gen-
eration. He’s the only one on the market, I think, that
is really in contact with his feminine part. He’s sexy
and he’s handsome.” For the same Met gala that Leto
attended dressed as an Elizabethan diva, Styles wore
a sheer black pussy-bow blouse with high-waisted
trousers, as an homage to the New Romantics of
the ’80s, part David Sylvian and part David Bowie.
“The friends that I choose in my career, they really
reflect my idea of beauty, so I think that they are
really connected with their feminine part,” says
Michele. “For me, it’s more masculine. A man is really
attractive when he listens to his feminine part.”
From the cult of Aphroditus to Jimi Hendrix,
men in skirts or ivory poet tops were never out of
style, really. But the magic of Michele’s reappropri-
ation of history is that he does it not verbatim but
with the hazy almost-rightness of a dream, styling
togas over classic gray wool suits or ’80s track pants
with swaggy ’70s blouses. As such, Michele’s Gucci
promises that to lace up a pair of Ultrapace sneakers

or step into its monogram slides is never a sacrifice of
self in the name of style. The mash-up of references,
the diversity of products, allows for everyone from
O≠set to Bradley Cooper to find a Gucci piece to love.
“It’s not that I want to see all men in a gown. That’s
not what I think,” Michele explains. “It’s just that
I love the idea that I can be surprised by the per-
sonality of someone else. It’s nice to play with your
life, to play with codes. I think that the era of being
masculine only if you have a specific suit—it’s over.
Completely over. Also, women need men who are
more connected with a woman’s world.”
It’s this openness to explore every corner of the
fashion world that has made Michele’s tenure at
Gucci so exciting to watch. Over the first five years of
his leadership, Gucci’s business was a fast-growing
juggernaut. “I think the more [the garments and
accessories] are special, the more they will be salable,”
he says. “When I talk about the collection and I show
it to the merchandising department, they understand
that fashion must be something unique. The era that
you just want to buy a black pair of trousers with-
out reason is over. Fashion can really talk to you. It’s
not just buying something, it’s connecting to

be sincere with my position.”
The image Gucci champions,
in the end, isn’t one image at all.
Michele has held a mirror up to
our world, reflecting the tension,
the sexuality, the fragility of being
a man in modern times back to us
with passion, rigor, symbolism, and
love. As you move, the Gucci reflec-
tion of you moves too. As the world
changes, Michele adapts.

steff yotka is the fashion news
editor at ‘Vogue.’

Michele encouraged Leto
to wear the bejeweled gown
and head: “You will be like
a Shakespearean character,”
he said. Top left: Ryan
Gosling in Gucci prom ruffles
at the 2017 Oscars.

“The era of being masculine only

if you have a specific suit—it’s

over. Also, women need

men who are more connected

with a woman’s world.”

66 GQ.COM NOVEMBER 2019


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