SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 GQ.COM.AU 239then newly appointed CEO Marco
Bizzarri. A meeting was scheduled.
Bizzarri’s since admitted their get
together was more a run through of
some of those he’d been eyeing off – though
he was quickly entranced by Michele, his
desires and historical quirks and honest,
passionate understanding of all that’s Gucci.
“It was unplanned,” Bizzarri’s said of that
meeting with Michele. “Someone said to call
him. They said, ‘he’s a good guy’.”
The pair talked for hours – Bizzarri also
engaged by Michele’s interest in antiques,
history and what he saw in the Milanese
designer’s apartment.
“He was wearing the loafer with the fur, he
looked like the first model exit in that [first]
Gucci show. Then I saw the apartment, the
attention to detail, the choice of furniture,
the passion for this aesthetic – it was there
already, I was seeing what he had in mind.”
Michele was named as Giannini’s
immediate replacement in January of 2015.
“I chose Alessandro when I could have
chosen the most talked-about designers in
the world,” Bizzarri’s said. “And they were
happy to come to Gucci because Gucci is
Gucci... I look back and think I was totally
crazy [with Alessandro’s appointment]. I put
in total danger, at total risk, my career.”
Risk. Without it great artistry surely
cannot flourish. And so it’s been with Bizzarri
and Michele.
The latter had but five days to send down
his first menswear collection in the new job
- it was fresh, divisive, ultimately celebrated.
It quickly outed what Michele was about
and showed what he could do.
And it returned exciting commentary
“I CHOSE
ALESSANDRO
WHEN I COULD
HAVE CHOSEN THE
MOST TALKED-
ABOUT DESIGNERS
IN THE WORLD.”
to Gucci. Gender lines were fluid,
embellishment was back, so too florals –
Michele quickly feted under a swollen set
of plaudits.
“Gucci has revolutionised its identity,”
sprouted Australian Justin O’Shea at the
time, then a buyer for e-tailer MyTheresa
before his own rise to luxury designer. “It
sounds easy saying it, but to actually achieve
this is one of the most remarkable fashion
moments in history. And the best part about
it is that it was done with beauty and
innocent, unbridled conviction. It has excited
the old Gucci customer and captivated new
customers, who loved the ‘idea’ of what the
brand represents but never clicked with
the previous aesthetic.”
For the man who first became interested
in fashion as a teen – and then studied
costume design in Rome, the revolutionary
tag is farfetched.
“I don’t feel like that,” he’s claimed. “I just
feel like myself. If the revolution is the
beauty, I’m a revolutionary.”
Still, if the revolution’s monetary – then
Michele’s influence is Napoleonic.
Since he and Bizzarri took hold, Gucci’s
come to own the majority of the Kering
group under which it sits. That is, 65 per
cent of the group’s luxury-division profits
now come via the Italian label, Gucci’s last
quarter profits up an incredible 21 per cent.
Not bad for a recently rudderless outfit.
Part of such profit drive is Michele’s
embrace of the future – a want to appreciatelogos as well as digitisation in the
enhancement of the march of the cool.
While that doesn’t extend to an
immediate purchase model that’s now
attached to other runways – as in
Burberry, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren
and others’ ‘see now, buy now’ model –
it’s meant encouraging the kids with
some hyped-up explosions of colour
and the collision of fun and aspiration.
It’s also meant a heady level of desirable
(read: re-postable) memes for the Gucci
watch line.
It’s about an understanding of popular
culture. It’s about being contemporary
while championing what’s gone before.
It’s surely about highlighting what is
a bright future. Though, as another
text-driven piece from the new AW17
current collection espouses: “What are we
going to do with all this future?”
Well, according to Michele, the coming
days are not about him.
“People don’t want to be soldier-like,
everybody wearing the same. There is
something of the tribe in fashion, but in the
end customers get a bit annoyed if you push
a particular bag. I’m a designer but also
a customer. I’m not inside a glass case. I go
outside, I shop. So I’m trying to make
beautiful things for people I love.”
Thanks Alessandro – we love you back. n