Gucci to abandon fashion weeks

In recent weeks, more and more voices within the fashion industry had called for a rethinking of the calendar of fashion shows and collections: Armani, Dries Van Noten, Marine Serre and the designers of the CFDA and British Fashion Council had all spoken of the obsolescence of the current system of the seasons in the fashion industry and their willingness to replace it with a new, more natural order. But, except in the case of Saint Laurent, the brands of the large industrial conglomerates did not seem to have taken part in this movement. Things changed yesterday, with Gucci publishing a long message signed by Alessandro Michele and entitled Notes from Silence, in which the creative director of the brand announced that Gucci will abandon the classic calendar of the seasons:

“ I decided to build a new path, away from deadlines that the industry consolidated and, above all, away from an excessive performativity that today really has no raison d’être. […] Therefore, I will abandon the worn-out ritual of seasonalities […] We will meet just twice a year to share the chapters of a new story”.

Michele's statement speaks not only of an alteration of the calendar or a decrease in production, but of a new way of telling fashion, of overcoming the concept of the fashion show – a concept that for some time had been close to the creative director of Gucci. Already his February meta-show, which had turned the concept of backstage by bringing to the front lines stylists and makeup artists, had wanted to deconstruct the concept of traditional fashion show. The change Michele talked about, however, seems to want to turn the old show into new "expressive passages". In the words of the designer himself:

“Irregular, joyful and absolutely free chapters which will be written blending rules and genres. […] I would like to leave behind the paraphernalia of leitmotifs that colonized our prior world: cruise, pre-fall, spring-summer, fall-winter. […] Here comes the desire to baptize our new encounters by naming them after a language that has marvelously ancient roots: classical music language. ”.

The overcoming of the format of the show and the significant abandonment of the pre-collections do not seem to be just a matter of name but a new form of show that, according to the previous shows of the brand, always accompanied by symbolism and brainy concepts, seems to announce a shift towards something more similar to storytelling and performance art – or at least to a new format marked by greater authorship.

What differentiates Michele's message from that of all his colleagues is precisely his authorial aspiration. The fiction of the diary page, the importance attributed to storytelling and narration, the need to re-contact "the deepest regions that have pushed me to enter the world of fashion" and the insistence on the personal dimension recall literary and musical models and seem to want to rewrite the role of creative director bringing him closer to that of an actual author. This is important because this authorial and more artistic dimension will define Gucci's shows in the future – a brand that, due to its role as a top-player in the current fashion market, has the real power to inspire change for all sectors of the industry – and that could really mark the beginning of a change of gear for the entire industry.