Last Monday Gucci hosted its Resort 2018 show at the Palatina Gallery at Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Alessandro Michele, Gucci's current Creative Director, originally wanted to showcase the collection at the Parthenon in Athens (it looks like Greece is an inspiration for the Resort 2018 collections, as seen on Chanel's runway), but he had to change plans when the Greek authorities denied permission.
So Michele opted for the Italian Renaissance, injecting it with a shot of modernity filtered via rock'n'roll moods. In a way the choice of Florence marked a return: Gucci was founded in Florence and the fashion house showed here for the last time in 1995 with Tom Ford.
The Palatina Gallery (Gucci paid to use it around $210,000) overlooks the Boboli Gardens and Gucci has pledged to donate over three years $2.1 million to support their restoration, so this was another way for the fashion house to show its interest in an architectural/art treasure, while using it for its own purposes (a practice employed by quite a few different brands and fashion houses nowadays, remember Fendi's investment in Rome's Trevi Fountain?).
The location with its frescoed rooms and masterpieces by painters such as Botticelli, Tintoretto, Titian and Caravaggio, seemed to go well with the collection, that could be considered as a 12" extended version of the S/S 17 collection: the latter borrowed from the Renaissance and, while in the Resort 18 collection there were hints at the Greek and Roman civilisations (see the gilded wreaths and tiaras crowning the models' heads), Michele mainly showed in his designs a deep passion for antiquities, paintings and the Italian Renaissance.
A few examples? The brocade tops in soft shades and the luscious pinks of the men's shirts and quilted coats may have been borrowed from Giovanni Battista Moroni's portraits of a young lady and of Gian Gerolamo Grumelli.
A long gown in metallic gold that opened up to reveal a delicate floral motif on a black and white background seemed reminiscent of the rich dress donned by Lucrezia Borgia in a portrait by Bartolomeo Veneto, and a coat with a chevron-like motif also called to mind the costume in Veneto's "Portrait of a Gentleman".
One model's hairstyle seemed borrowed from da Vinci's "Lady with the ermine", even though the model wasn't carrying a live animal, but a fur stole; the pearls framing in balaclava style the faces of some of the models seemed instead an idea borrowed from portraits of Barbara Radziwill, queen of Poland.
Bronzino prevailed in one mini-dress that echoed Eleonora da Toledo's rich costumes and some of the voluminous sleeves were probably taken from Raphael's portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici.
Another reference to Lorenzo de' Medici was his poem "A Song For Bacchus", embroidered onto the stools for the guests, an ode inspired by Horace's carpe diem, exhorting people to enjoy youth. The poem starts with the words "Quant'è bella giovinezza/che si fugge tuttavia!/chi vuol esser lieto, sia/di doman non c'è certezza" (How beautiful our Youth is/That's always flying by us/Who'd be happy let him be so:/Nothing's sure about tomorrow."
Another member of the family, Lorenzo's daughter Lucrezia as portrayed by Alessandro Allori, may have also been an inspiration for some of the more formal looks.
In essence, the eccentricity that Michele brought on the runway since he started at Gucci - think silk jogging tracksuits, copious amounts of ruffled shirts and heavily embellished details - was still there.
Most designs integrated motifs, details and elements that have been on the Gucci runway since Alessandro Michele became its Creative Director, that is sequinned embroideries and decorative patches of snakes, tigers, butterflies, dragons and bees, or floral elements. Naturalism was a strong theme not just for what regards the tapestry suits, but also the maxi tote bags and the shirts.
Besides, guests were given a floral themed present: a box with a sort of warning "Urtica Ferox" ( Tree Nettle; a reference to the New Zealand plant that could be found in Florence during the Renaissance and that could be used as a medicine, but also contained a powerful poison) on its lid. The box actually contained a customised Gucci cap in a jute bag.
Slogans such as "Guccy", "Guccification" and "Guccify Yourself" appeared on tops and jackets (in some cases embellished with Chinese guardian lions), as if Michele was playing with the "original luxury brand name Vs fake" dichotomy. Yet here and there, the designer stumbled and fell, revealing that, while he may have learnt how to remix things from the master of this art, Miuccia Prada, he must try and be more careful when he cuts and edits his remixes.
One trompe l'oeil dress seemed indeed borrowed from Roberta di Camerino's designs, but that already happened with another Gucci collection, so this is not news.
The model with the pearl "balaclava" applied around her face that echoed's Radziwill's portrait also reminded of a make up style by Pat McGrath for Steven Meisel's Vogue Italia shoot "The Couturettes" (Sept 2006).
One look was instead accessorised with a pair of glasses that could be described as the revisited version of the famous crystal embellished asymmetrical "Plume" glasses by Alain Mikli.
One jacket was the Gucci version of a jacket that Harlem tailor Daniel Day AKA Dapper Dan designed for American track and field star and Olympic gold medalist Diane Dixon in 1989, that integrated LV monogrammed sleeves.
To be more precise the jacket looked like a copy of it, from the voluminous logoed leg o' mutton sleeves to the fur panels. Dapper Dan started his career by repurposing branded bags and using them for his garments, but then moved onto screen-printing brand logos himself, Gucci among them. He was well-known for his customised takes on logomania and for creating tailor made designs (for icons such as Mike Tyson, LL Cool J, Eric B. and Rakim and Salt-N-Pepa) that incorporated Fendi, Louis Vuitton and Gucci's logos.
Now while in the first case McGrath may have taken the idea from portraits à la Radziwill's and Michele may have replicated it (difficult here to say this is a copyright infringement as this could be deemed as a make up style idea, something that is not covered by any written and established copyright), in the case of the glasses Michele slightly varied them, yet his frame still looks like Mikli's iconic "Plume". If Mikli's glasses are patented or copyrighted (and they probably are...), Gucci's design may pose a problem.
And while there are no copyright issues for ideas, colours, styles and outfits that may be taken from a Renaissance painting, for what regards Dapper Dan's jacket things may be different. Last week actually Gucci issued a statement trying to provide an explanation. The company confirmed the jacket was inspired by Dapper Dan's, and explained that the collection borrowed from the European Renaissance, the '70s and the '80s. According to the statement, the jacket was another way for Michele to juxtapose two concepts he seems to love "faux-real" and "for real".
The company allegedly reached out to Dapper Day since it was interested in collaborating with him, but the collaboration never happened. Now, if by using slogans such as "Guccify yourself" Michele was playing with self-parody, in the case of the jacket he seemed to be appropriating Dapper Dan, while making a parody of him. It is worth remembering that Dapper Dan's boutique went out of business in 1992 after some of the European luxury brands he used for his designs sued him (as noted in a previous post about Supreme and Louis Vuitton, nowadays luxury brands seem eager to jump into bed with cool labels that parodied them in the '80s or the '90s to attract younger consumers...). This would be the second time Gucci has sinned of "appropriation" in a relatively short time: the recent "Soul Scene" Pre-Fall 17 campaign that only features black models and dancers and it is inspired by the Malian artist Malick Sidibé and the Northern Soul movement in the 1960s Britain, looks indeed like appropriating the culture rather than paying homage to it.
So, you now naturally stop and wonder how many other copies were hid under the label "homage" in this collection (but in other ones by other designers as well...) or lost under all the layers of separates, head scarves, turbans, hairpieces, bumbags, quilted coats, shearling leather bombers and military coats covered in intricate embroideries.
If your question is why on earth most critics invited were raving and ranting about Gucci's Resort collection, while ordinary people on the Internet were spotting out similarities, the answer is simple: most critics reviewing the Resort collections get a free break courtesy of the fashion house inviting you and a memento from the catwalk show (in this case the Gucci cap) and they are therefore not interested in making comparisons that may damage that particular collection/fashion house.
The most interesting question about this collection, though, is not what was copied/borrowed from where, but what will happen if consumers start becoming more aware of designs that may not be entirely original. Some say that consumers do not care, they will buy all the same, especially younger ones who may not know their fashion history. Yet nowadays you can easily and quickly expand your knowledge on the Internet and maybe the day consumers will start changing their attitude to copies, borrowing and remixing, will also be the day fashion houses will finally change their rhythms and slow down things in favour of higher and more innovative and original standards.
The winner in all this story? Undoubtedly Safilo. They used to produce Gucci's eyewear, but Kering recently brought in-house the eyewear lines from all its brands, terminating Gucci's license deal with Safilo two years early. Which means that, if Luxottica - now owner of Alain Mikli - ever decides to sue Gucci about the "Plume" business, they will have to deal directly with Kering.
Amazing resonances across 500 years. Let's hope we catch up with slow fashion, soon!
Posted by: Kmaustral | June 07, 2017 at 12:59 AM