Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Listen to fashion critic-at-large Cathy Horyn read her review.
Last year, Gucci sold around $7 billion in clothing and accessories. That’s down from $12.4 billion in 2022, which is why Gucci brought in Demna. Demna, the former designer of Balenciaga, who grew up in Soviet-era Georgia, who once did a fashion show with the creators of The Simpsons, who dressed Kim and Nicole, understands public taste.
On Friday, in his first show for Gucci, he proved that again. The setting was a specially built theater that resembled a museum, complete with mock Roman statues. Eighty-three models in heavy glamour makeup, walking in single file and far apart, followed a beam of light down the darkened runway, a style that recalled the spotlighted drama of Tom Ford’s Gucci. Except Demna’s runway was five or six times longer than Ford’s. At Balenciaga, his choice of models often seemed a reflection of his inner doubts about his body and attractiveness. But here, at Gucci, they were babes and hunks, new internet rappers, girls in black bobs who looked like Mia Wallace in “Pulp Fiction,” and a Canadian hockey player who was almost bursting out of his polo shirt and leather pants.
Photo: Estrop/Getty Images
The clothes were not merely form-fitting—sexy; they were designed and made to feel almost weightless on the body. That’s a huge change from Demna’s previous work but also from a lot of the recent, more complicated fashion we’ve seen—for example, Jonathan Anderson’s couture debut in January, Schiaparelli and Louise Trotter’s Bottega Veneta. Nonetheless, people on social media were quick to dismiss the Gucci collection, calling it “ridiculous” and “cheap” and even saying it looked no better than Zara.
From left: Photo: Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Gucci
From top: Photo: Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Gucci
Yet to consider the clothes only in terms of aesthetics is not very useful, because we are probably already at the end of a long period in which we looked at (and cared about) fashion brands that way. What does Saint Laurent or Valentino mean to someone in her twenties? The other day, in her debut at Fendi, Maria Grazia Chiuri invoked the five Fendi sisters, who worked with Karl Lagerfeld. But what can any of that history mean to a young person today? Many aren’t interested in fashion of the mind, as people were throughout the 20th century. They’re quicker and more ruthlessly selective, no doubt as a consequence of faster technology and a different sense of freedom, as well as of the body. The fashion industry largely struggles with this situation.
But Demna doesn’t. That’s what I felt watching the show, that he was in touch with an audience that I didn’t fully understand. And because I saw his progress over a decade at Balenciaga, saw how he changed people’s ideas, I’m inclined to trust him at Gucci. This is only the beginning.
He said, “Everything you can say about a human being you can say about Gucci.” That is a remarkably liberal statement of intention. He also put it across in the show.
He expressed that most obviously in the variety of styles. There were the guys in the opening buff muscle shirts, a kind of caricature of an L.A. type, but also dudes in metallic leather, low-riding jeans and contrasting t-shirts, or board shorts with the brand’s fur-lined loafers, or a funny take on “lounge” wear in black stretch lace.
Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
I sometimes felt that the men in the show got the better deal, the more novel casual things, like silver python jeans, and also that the women got lumped with the difficult shoes. A few wobbled on their stilettos like stricken fawn. Body-conscious fashion is new terrain for Demna, and that may account for the overtly sexual styles—skimpy mini dresses, low-cut leggings with slits—for women. That also may change in time.
From left: Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
Still, there was an extraordinary range of feminine looks, including a cropped puffer jacket with fur dripping down the front and some smart, loosely cut tailoring. I also loved the fresh energy of a short tailored jacket with either a skirt or trousers. The collection also included a terrific suit in liquid black leather, presumably for any gender.
From left: Photo: Estrop/Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Estrop/Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
From left: Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
From top: Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesPhoto: Estrop/Getty Images
So it was a good start. Obviously, the proof will be in the sales. But Demna’s POV, his grasp of a changing audience, is already causing me to question things I see on other runways.