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causeit cantakeeverythingfromyou.
Youcan’tbejustanimage—youreally
needtobeheretofighteveryday.Iwas
reflectingthat if your job becomesyour
prosthetic to make your life better,
whenyoutakeitoff,youwilldie.Idon’t
wantthatprosthetic.Iwantmylife.”
Michele’s partner, the elegantly re-
served professor of urban planning
VanniAttili,whohasjoinedusforteain
the sitting room, helps keep Michele
grounded.Attili “was snobbish about
fashionin the beginning,”Michelead-
mits. “Now he’s really in love.He’sa
partneralso in work,” Micheleadds in
hisidiosyncraticEnglish.
“Sometimespeoplethink thatfash-
ion is just a good dress,”he continues,
“but it’s not. It’s a bigger reflectionof
historyandsocialchangeandverypow-
erful things. If you want to produce
something new, especially now, you
need more languages.I don’t want to
die in the marketing. In the end you
needtosell,butit’slikea bigfresco—
andthefrescospeakstoeverybody.”
Soon the demands of the looming
showdrawusfromthiscosyaerietothe
fitting room, where some 60 design as-
sistants—posterchildrenforMichele’seclectic-looking assemblages of pan-
decadegarments—havebeenwaiting.
We’resurroundedbyracksandracks
ofprototypes,andinthe 78 hoursbe-
tween now and the show, more will be
added.“Nothingis forgottenorrejected
or not used,” says Michele,who notes
thateventhisembarrassmentof riches
is notenoughfortheneedsofGucci’s
globalempire.“Actually,allthethings
we create for the shows are not suffi-
cient to cover all the activitieswe do.”
Michele pulled his debut fall 2015-16
Gucci menswearcollectiontogetherin
fivedaysflat,atestamentnotonlyto>