Marc Jacobs may be one of the best students at the Miuccia Prada school of fashion remixing, but Alessandro Michele must be, in some ways, Miuccia's illegitimate son.
Since his appointment at Gucci, he has indeed infinitely remixed and recombined thousands of inspirations together, confusing and suprising a vastly ignorant audience of fashion "influencers" too young and inexperienced (or just too lazy) to point out where each and every reference came from.
Michele's new Gucci aesthetic started a couple of years ago with librarian/granny/geek chic, but, as the season passed, the designer borrowed from antiquities, old and obscure books, British eccentrics, kitsch interior design, Renaissance paintings and Italian crepuscular decadentism, eventually landing in an imaginary realm of glam rock and disco, and causing Internet mayhem when his Gucci Resort 2018 collection was accused of copying Dapper Dan.
Yesterday Michele kept on working on his remixing techniques, bringing the sampling madness to the next level by actually pointing out on Gucci's Instagram and Twitter accounts where the inspirations for the house's S/S 18 collection came from. In a nutshell, he acknowledged the sampling exercise.
The set, at the via Mecenate headquarters in Milan, was a mish-mash of influences: a blue runway hinted at the Tiber River flowing in Rome, while the captions written into the floor were modern translations of an ancient map showing the location of the villa of Horace in the countryside and were taken from the 18-century antique book Decouverte de la maison de campagne d'Horace (1767-1769) by French writer and archeologist Bertrand Capmartin de Chaupy.
Statues from different places, eras and cultures were scattered around the space, so that Greek and Egyptian, Aztec and Indian art met and combined in a postmodernist Disneyland. In a way it looked like an intricately complex but stupidly kitsch version of Superstudio's metaphysical and metaphorical Supersurface.
Finding coherence on the runway was almost impossible: there were crystal embellished nude evening gowns inspired by ice-skating costumes, super disco sequinned dresses matched wih mini-cross-body bags with the Gucci logo mispelled as "Guccy" (the "fake Vs real" ironic juxtaposition Michele has been playing with for a while...) recreated using the graphic motif of the Sega logo.
Several '70s suits in contrasting colours were accessorised with an abundance of red coral and horn necklaces, almost talismans and symbols of protection for a generation that doesn't believe in anything apart from regularly updating their Instagram accounts.
Knitwear also showed precise derivations: a rhinestoned Bugs Bunny head appeared on a waistcoat; a jumper spelt "Never Marry a Mitford", a slogan inspired by the 11th Duke of Devonshire, and lifted from the collection at Chatsworth House (where Gucci is currently sponsoring the exhibition "House Style") and a goat designed by Erick Berry for the book Araminta by Eva Knox Evans (1935) was traced in red yarn on a cream jumper.
Then came more specific and glamorous references: an '80s vintage tracksuit evoked the ghost of Elio Fiorucci (Gucci-Fiorucci?) and combined him with the printed motifs and colours of the Pop Art garments sold by Mr Freedom, the iconic London-based boutique owned by Tommy Roberts and Trevor Myles in the '60s.
One T-shirt featured a print of the Mr Freedom label, another a Snow White appliqued motif that echoed the early Disney character jumpers by Mr Freedom.
There was also another Mr Freedom, William Klein's eponymous film, evoked by the Stars and Stripes designs.
Elton John commissioned Roberts to create several looks for his American tour in 1970 and so came another big influence in the collection.
A tote bag was illustrated with the single cover for Elton John's 1971 "Levon", a motif replayed in a pair of white sunglasses featuring a red tear under the right eye.
Then came the Elton John-Bob Mackie connection: the creations from the '70s and '80s by the famous costume designer were tweaked and reinvented, from clownish sequinned costumes to square shouldered jackets.
A pink jumpsuit covered in rhinestones that Elton John donned for a duet with Miss Piggy was turned into a long purple piece, while a rather outlandish costume with geometrical motifs became a puff shoulder striped top.
Mackie wasn't the only costume designer mentioned: a jacket and pants ensemble covered in musical notes was inspired by an outfit by Annie Reavey, worn by Elton John for a gig at the Hollywood Bowl in 1973; the "E H J" initials embellishing the back of a lamé jacket were also borrowed from a design by Annie Reavey.
The catwalk progressed with more tour jackets, clownish jumpsuits, sequined baseball jackets, random rainbows, geek-chic eyewear, fur coats in a 1984-1986 style, Hawaiian prints, plaids, checks, bizarre sunglasses, GG medallion necklaces, and random Oriental references.
In a way it was as if a unicorn had revomited rare issues of Nova magazines with chopped and half-digested album covers by Elton John. Visually it worked especially in the eyes of the assorted celebrities and influencers/high profile bloggers with a magpie mind and copious amouns of glitter running in their veins, all of them sitting in the front row.
The fact that some references were clearly decoded and analysed was a bit like musicians giving credit to a song they may have sampled in their own track. As we all know, quite often sampling works pretty well, creating intriguing soundscapes and maybe the technique works in fashion as well, at least it proved to be a winning formula for Gucci, as the house showed a 43.4% increase in sales recently.
Yet there are issues that make you think: decades ago, when the fashion industry was still in its infancy, designers would try and really come up with something - their own moods, their own fabrics, their own knitwear elaborations, their own tailored tricks. In brief, they came up with their own designs.
Nowadays the trick is to grab everything, put it into a blender and wait for the results to come out. Some people like Alessandro Michele seem to be better at doing it; others fail miserably or their sampling technique is unrefined since they do not have a vast culture and strong personal curiosity (things that Michele has definitely got as opposed to other younger and less experienced, but also less curious, designers).
The main problem with this collection is that it shows not just derived materials, but garments that are reproductions of other designers and even one T-shirt with Bob Mackie's signature. So what makes them genuinely original or genuinely Gucci? This is in brief the main dilemmas of such collections produced by the house in the last few seasons (apart from the fact that, since all the garments produced so far by Alessandro Michele are part of a huge remix, you struggle to distinguish one season from the other).
As for Alessandro Michele, he wanted to aesthetically change a company that remained fossilised for quite a few years and successfully did so. He remains a magically spectacular and arcane wizard for many foreign publications, a glam/rock'n'roll star with the charisma of a Jesus-like figure (the beard and long hair help...).
Deep down, though, Michele is essentially like those grammar school social outcasts who study Latin and Greek and, at 15, they keep on confusing and annoying their peers quoting things in defunct languages and writing their names using the Greek alphabet (I did it all the time...).
That said, yesterday's exercise in remixing was particularly successful: Daniel Day - better known as Dapper Dan - was also present at the show. Oh yes, since the diatribe in June, an agreement has been reached: he is appearing in Gucci's tailoring ad campaign and he will also relaunch his studio with the help of the company that will supply the raw materials. His shop, a 24-hour-a-day Harlem based atelier where he remixed unauthorized designer logos was closed down by big brands fighting against him. Then Gucci "homaged" him in June and now the two will collaborate on a capsule collection (produced and sold in Gucci stores worldwide from next spring), closing a vicious creative circle.
In the past you would create from scratch, then came the mix by Miuccia Prada, then came the chopping and remixing exercise by a younger generation of designers à la Marc Jacobs. Now we have the latest version, stealing and legitimising the copy, a sort of new genre, marking more or less the end of the more traditional industry. Guess we were wrong when we all thought the "see now buy now" concept was the real revolution.
PS Note for those who liked the Bob Mackie connection: buy yourself Bob Mackie vintage patterns for McCall's and make your own dress, it may not be perfect but at least it will be your own remix of the original thing...
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