If you’re looking for evidence of Alessandro Michele’s belief in what he does, look no further than the look he wore to the Vogue Festival in London this weekend. As chronicled by Fashionista, the Gucci Creative Director wore embroidered silk baseball jacket, stripy socks, low heeled Mary Janes, and a fabulous assortment of jewels. It’s so refreshing to see a designer wearing his own work — no jeans and t-shirt here. Michele will return to London in two weeks for Gucci’s cruise show in Westminster Abbey, the first time there’s been a fashion show in the historic location.
If his clothes spoke volumes, what he said was even better. “In the last ten years, the market has been full of products,” he said, commenting on the collective shopping overload. “Fashion is not about products. Fashion is about an amazing idea that you tried and you either fall in love with the idea and you can’t resist to buy something. But you are buying the idea, you are not buying the object.”
He also commented on his hiring at the storied house, and his relationship with its visionary CEO, Marco Bizzarri. When his predecessor left in 2015, he wanted to leave too, until Bizzarri came over for a coffee — what he didn’t realize was that it was also a job interview. “We had this coffee for four hours, and we had a lot of fun, honestly.” Later, Bizzarri rang him up to ask if he could prepare a show in a week. The rest is history. Michele recalled coming out for this bow at the end of his first show thusly; “I was with my big beard, hair, it was crazy… I had [been wearing] the same jumper for three days, because I didn’t care.”
Credits
Text Jack Sunnucks
Photography Jason Lloyd Evans