This article was originally published by i-D UK.
Over the last two years creative director Alessandro Michele has overseen Gucci’s hyper-referential transformation. As his ornately collaged world continues to seduce critics and consumers alike, his epic 119 look, coed show back in February hinted that there is more to come from this Italian house. From formal country gardens to Renaissance art and fashion’s past and present, Michele is seemingly able to pick up any reference and turn it into Gucci, so it was only a matter of time before he looked up. Answering Coco Capitan’s “What are we going to do with all this future?” question that greeted show-goers in Milan, Michele peers beyond Earth’s possibilities and imagines what the wider solar system might offer.
Building on the interstellar Instagram casting videos teased in April, Gucci transports us to to faraway galaxies for its full fall/winter 17 campaign. Its inspired by 50s and 60s sci-fi — particularly the interstellar adventures of Captain James T Kirk and his crew aboard the starship USS Enterprise in early Star Trek episodes. Michele, art director Christopher Simmonds, and photographer/director Glen Luchford have dreamed up a series of retro-futurist settings where a mixed cast of humanoids, aliens, robots, and earthlings discover Gucci’s fall/winter 17 collection. From the fight between William Shatner’s Kirk and the Gorn to Jack Arnold’s Creature of the Black Lagoon, the campaign reimagines iconic sci-fi scenes and creates a few of its own. Human heroes interact with alien creatures and dinosaurs on Earth before being beamed up to surreal, psychedelic outer space landscapes and trippy spaceship interiors, creating the type of wild and fantastical compositions that Star Trek‘s Gene Roddenberry could only dream of. With Michele as the brand’s captain, Gucci will live long and prosper.
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Text Steve Salter