238 GQ.COM.AU SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017as building on his clear desire for inclusivity
and blurred gender lines.
The man of the moment appears, dressed
in a yellow T-shirt, baseball cap, his hair
cropped shorter than before at shoulder
length. He employs a staggered jog about
the various points of the catwalk to bow and
take in the standing applause of all present.
That sense of anticipation has morphed
into appreciation and rousing acceptance.
While a humble and quiet man, Michele is
very much the wunderkind of reinvention
who’s pushed the fabled house of Gucci into
a contemporary relevance that arguably rests
parallel to Tom Ford’s ‘sexy’ renaissance
period of the mid-’90s.
Today, he’s again surpassed expectation
and driven beyond surprise and answered
all questions. For he is fashion’s current king,
and his crown’s been more than retained.I
am not feeling like a special person...
it’s not about me.”
While Michele is the chief architect
of change, his is not a story of
ownership or a tale of one man’s
singular vision pushing conformity.
He allows for the individual to add the
personal to his designs – to further interpret
and privately engage.
As the loftier ends of fashion look to graft
maintained aspiration into a greater sense of
accessibility – stepping down as dictators inregards to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ – Michele’s
approach is very much nuzzled into the now.
It’s about freedom within luxury. It’s about
the luxury of freedom.
“I think that fashion, for a long time, has
been in a prison,” Michele’s previously said.
“I think that without freedom, with rules,
it’s impossible to create a new story... people
want you to suggest the idea that you can
really put together and create a personal
point of view. You have to belong to a brand
that has a story, because obviously a brand
needs an aesthetic. But you need also to
suggest the idea of freedom. Because when
you go in the street, people are free to do
what they want. There are no rules.”
Ultimately – it’s about artistry stitched
to singularity, a chance to pen a personal
sartorial narrative and break from what’s
previously been decreed.
It’s why, at the AW17 show’s official
afterparty, the fresco-ceilings of what
is an historic Milanese high school look
down over a crowd that’s interpreted
modern Gucci in many different forms.
Hiddleston’s at the bar – a bomber jacket
and dad jeans replacing his earlier suit, so
too latest Michele muse, the artist Petra
Collins. A$AP Rocky, meanwhile, is now
accessorising with a Polaroid camera (#smile)
and new girlfriend, Kendall Jenner.
Elsewhere stand ’80s UK punk types with
stalagmite-spiked hair, goths and drag
queens who’ve dressed as if destined for an
after-after steam punk party. In the corner,sits a bolo-tied cowboy (#spaghettiwestern)
while young kids wander in wire, Unabomber
specs atop Gucci logo T-shirts.
There’s also a dude who looks like Rai
Thistlethwayte – but then there’s always
a dude who looks like Rai Thistlethwayte.
Michele has wandered several of the
adjoined rooms of the party – taking in the
crowd and the many strong words of ‘bravo’,
‘well done’ and ‘wonderful’ that are delivered
by those who stand and await his move past.
He smiles – a lot. And he’s every right to.
For tonight, for all that he’s managed to
achieve in just 25 months at the helm.
By 2014, Gucci had become staid. It was
predictable, unexciting. There was growing
concern about what the fabled Italian label
was to become – about what its future would
look like were it to simply plod along the
pocked path it had been walking. Sales were
on a dramatic decline.
Change was needed and three years ago,
scouts tapped all-comers about the top design
job – securing a shortlist of potential
candidates, a grouping of well-known types
who’d delivered elsewhere and would, at the
least, bring some fanfare to the Florentine
house founded by Guccio Gucci in 1921.
Michele’s name wasn’t on any of those lists.
He was a ‘backroom boy’ – having quietly
ascended, over 12 years at Gucci, to that of
head of accessories design (cue that eye for
some of the pieces now most coveted).
Still, his passion and talents hadn’t gone
unnoticed and so he came to the attention ofTHE STARS WERE OUT IN FULL FORCE TO WITNESS MICHELE’S LATEST WORK, EACH WITH THEIR DISTINCT TAKE ON THE GUCCI LOOK.
FROM LEFT, FLORENCE WELCH; A$AP ROCKY; HARI NEFF; JARED LETO; ALEXA CHUNG; TOM HIDDLESTON.