2023-07-25 00:28:03
At Gucci, fashion beyond clothing
Fashion week would necessarily rhyme with parade? Nay! Gucci thinks outside the box and offers an experience around one of its icons, the Horsebitthus shaking up the age-old couture custom, the second rank to which men’s fashion shows are often relegated.
Milan men’s fashion week 2023, the Florentine brand opens an ephemeral exhibition from June 17 to 18 at the Maiocchi space, thus celebrating the seventieth anniversary of its iconic horsebit buckle.
Ten artists for a legacy
Alessio Ascari, curator of the Maiocchi space and the event, invited ten artists to design pieces around the bit.
We were thus able to see on a whole section of the wall the artificial photo of Charlie Engmanhung on another the framed pictures of Blatant Spacein all-over wallpaper the patchwork of Ed Davislying on huge cushions a film of Bolad Banjo and in replay the performance of Captain Candle.
The five other “artists”: Sylvie Fleury shows us his installation Bedroom Ensemble II from 1998, Gyuhan Lee ses “minimalist lighting sculptures”the “sculptural furniture artist” Pitter Patter you know “30-foot dining table”, Anna Franceschini with his “cabinet of curiosities” et Harry Nuriev with his “conceptual space”.
The eclectic and coherent selection of pieces invests the generosity of the place, a cozy bubble in which the aesthetics owe nothing to chance. If the word artiste is put in quotes above, this is in no way to minimize their artistic approach but to emphasize another point: the plastic envelope of their practice.
© Charlie Engman for Gucci
Cutting-edge design for an icon
Alessio Ascari was certainly not chosen at random to lead the curation of this event.
The gentleman is known to the services, he is the Founder and Creative Director of the magazines Kaleidoscope et Capsule. Capsulefollow the bio Insta “International Review of Radical Design & Desire Theory”who organized during the Design Week milanaise a pop-up… at Maiocchi space. The placement is subtle and readable, Gucci binds here to a curation of visual artist or, dare we say it, of contemporary designer.
What we remember above all regarding the event is its aesthetics. In fact, the “minimalist lighting sculptures” of Gyuhan Lee are printed hanji lamps Guccithe sculpture of Pitter Patter is a table adorned with moccasins and the “conceptual space” of Harry Nuriev is a set of silver coffee tables and armchairs. While the many iterations of the term “artist” serve the cultural credit of the brand, the effective result of the whole energizes and anchors the brand in a contemporary approach and aesthetic. The picture of Horsebit born seventy years ago has never been so fresh.
©Gyhuan Lee, hanji lamps for Gucci ©Harry Nuriev for Gucci ©Pitter Patter for Gucci
Indeed, if we omit the determining role of Sylvie Fleury in the history of contemporary art, its Bedroom Ensemble II all colored fur is extremely instagramable. Posted on the networks, a recovery artist recovered by those she recovered: Gucci also knows how to show itself meta beyond Roblox et Fortnite… A delicate niche placement and a precise brand image for a firm with 10.5 billion euros in turnover in 2022.
©Sylvie Fleury for Gucci
Gucci still sets the tone
Speaking of Instagram, the communication strategy is crystal clear. We first count four video announcement posts between June 14 and 16. Then come seven carousel presentation posts from June 17 to 19, comprising a total of thirty-one photos and thirteen videos.
Among these carousels, only one includes six photos strictly speaking of clothing and accessories from the summer 2024 men’s collection – the only post in addition with the hashtag #GucciSS24. All the other ten positions, however, are decked out with the #IMF. The ratio of marketable clothing photos is therefore low for a new collection in full fashion week.
©Gucci
No photo of human silhouette therefore for this collection signed by the internal team. In the absence of an Artistic Director, the focus this season has been on the sharp and very contemporary image that the brand wants to convey beyond the clothing medium. The anniversary pretext serves here as an appointment in the middle of fashion week to give a niche image. While everyone is expecting a new grand mega show timed parade (we remember the parade of twins last September or that of January around the concert of Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog), Gucci poses its pace, its frame and presents us here with a space, a break in the frenzy of fashion week.
And this is the whole strength of the project. In the rhetorical contest, the trophy goes to the one who knows how to impose his rhythm. Everyone is turning today to the half-time fashion shows of Super Bowl. Luxury is perhaps also to create subtle connections between a mothership Dry and a contemporary Swiss artist for a weekend. While fashion is at the parade event generating virality and free where, crowning for a fashion show, there is almost no question of clothing. Gucci tells us here that, of course, neither is it a question of clothing, but that it is perhaps a question of an erudite sensibility which is in fact only the other side of the same coin, that of fashion.
#IMF is not synonymous with an expensive parade. Fashion week is a meeting of enthusiasts and Gucci puts us in tune here. In subtext: impose your rhythm by simply taking your time and extending your universe, your vision beyond the textile medium.
Or maybe… Appropriate anniversary for a brand in need of an Artistic Director?
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#Gucci #clothing #Milan
