If there’s one thing Alessandro Michele loves, it’s keeping us all on our toes. During his time at the helm of Gucci the Creative Director has sent Jared Leto to the Met Gala holding his own severed head, launched a beauty line and worked to turn the brand completely carbon neutral. He also loves to switch up locations for his Cruise show, with today being no exception.
Following last year’s decision to take the Gucci gang to Rome, today the luxury brand announced that they’re heading instead to San Francisco for Cruise 2021. The city was chosen because of its history as a centre of liberal activism, says the house, and its iconic status as a cultural melting pot.
“San Francisco is a symbol for liberty, where antidotes to discrimination have been cultivated, sowing the seeds for freedom of self-expression for many,” the brand said in a statement, noting that the Cruise show would take place on Monday 18 May this year.
The choice is the latest in a five year series of Gucci’s Cruise being held in interesting and culturally significant locations. Prior to holding last year’s presentation at the nonprofit Dia Art Foundation in upstate New York, the brand have presented Cruise collections in London’s Westminster Abbey, Florence’s Palatine Gallery, the Promenade des Alyscamps in Arles, and the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Phew.
San Francisco is a particularly interesting choice for 2021 — which also marks the 100 year anniversary of Gucci’s inception — as the spirit of the city lines up so closely with Alessandro’s own vision for the brand, one of “the acceptance of diversity and the right to be oneself”. “Unveiling the collection in the city,” a statement read, “will also reconnect him with his most personal raison d’être: a celebration and validation of self-expression, emancipation and ultimately, freedom.”
Buzzing.