Fashion makes the world a lot more interesting. It is only in this colorful and stylish world where creative juices may flow freely.
In the fashion world, Gucci is one of the leading brands, pushing boundaries for decades. Gucci’s Fall-Winter 2018 collection, “Cyborg,” goes beyond, opening a field of fresh possibilities.
I was lucky to be part of the media group invited to the Gucci FW 2018 Asia press open house in Hong Kong, where I got to experience the fashion detailing of Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s relatively new creative director. With his streak of mystery and eccentricity, Michele has truly shaken the Gucci brand.
“Cyborg” was an amazing show, including dragon puppies, doubling heads, eyes on hands and faun horns. This Gucci Cyborg era is where boundaries are broken, leading to a new identity. It signifies the possibility of being liberated from the confines of the natural condition we are born into.
Feminist
Michele’s reference is the feminist philosopher Donna Haraway’s 1984 “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.”
In the collection, we saw a lot of contrasting ideas, such as the collaboration of Paramount Pictures and major league baseball in one piece, an Oriental-inspired jacket with traditional buttons but with a Paramount logo at the back. With no clear definitions, the possibilities were endless.
Michele wanted inspiration from all around the world. There was a lot of relevant Eastern inspiration, like body jewelry. The men’s collection included a lot of detailed tailoring. There was a new silhouette consisting of a long shirt with two front pockets, signifying functionality. There was a lot of layering as well, bringing traditional women’s styling into the men’s line.
In the case of women’s evening looks, the handmade embroidery showed a superb level of craftsmanship. The looks were very delicate and much like art. By putting the Paramount logo on an evening dress, Michele put fun into an evening look.
Spirit of sport
The Gucci bag collection for Fall is infused with the spirit of sport and decorative exuberance. It offers a wide variety of styles in different sizes, ranging from large totes to small evening shoulder bags and belt bags, and incorporates a number of different materials. The common denominator throughout is Gucci’s distinctive, eclectic aesthetic and use of House motifs, as well as other emblems, adopted from new partners and historical sources.
The multipocket backpack style is key for the season, and it comes in wrinkled nylon, recalling the ’80s, in black, yellow and turquoise, with multicolor terry patches and the Gucci logo, and interlocking G for decoration.
An additional variation on the sporting theme comes in the form of two spherical leather cases—a bowling ball case (small size) and basketball case (large size).
There are also bright, multicolor variants of the camera bag in contrasting metallics. All camera bags feature the same interlocking-G-with-horsebits detail in gold and silver as seen on the small leather shoulder bags, and a unique shoulder strap, made of three leather strips braided together, which can be adjusted from the inside.
Keys to completing the Gucci look are sunglasses and shoes. Journey, the “It” shoe of the season, is a fashion statement, both for men and women. It’s inspired by a mountain trekking shoe and has the Gucci logo in the Sega print. It is enriched with crisscrossed crystals on the top and with new color variations.
Compelling
I am not an expert fashion critic, but I know a curiously compelling collection when I see one. This particular collection was totally appealing to me because of special effects, especially the “Game of Thrones” dragon babies carried by the models.
Michele fleshed out his chimeric fantasy with the aid of Makinarium, a group of techno-artisans in Rome who create lifelike visual effects, and who are responsible for the cloned heads, extra eyeballs and dragon babies that made such a striking impression on the runway.
Gucci logos were everywhere and there were branded love letters to Sega, major league baseball, manga, Paramount and Russ Meyer. The individual pieces of each collection offer potent personality. Now it’s up to you to mix and match your way to a new identity.
The best part about being invited to the Gucci Open House is the shopping afterward! Upon checking in at the brand-new, uber-stylish The Murray Hong Kong, we were greeted by Team Gucci led by Sheryl Tam, marketing and communications director for Gucci SEAP, who gave us lots of free time to shop.
Metro Society editor Raul Manzano and eventologist Tim Yap joined me in checking out the new styles of Gucci. Rachelle Sayed, associate marketing manager, Gucci Philippines (SSI Group), explained some of the new collection details. I was half expecting the severed heads and dragon puppies to be the latest “It” bag.
Check out the luxury issue of Lifestyle Asia with its cover girls—Laura Lehmann, Xandra Araneta and Lauren Liechtenstein—all wearing Gucci for SSI’s 30th anniversary.
Celebrating its 30th year, SSI continues to deliver its well-curated selection of retail brands ranging from luxury fashion and fast-fashion, to home, beauty and original concepts, making it the Filipino’s lifestyle curator.
Gucci is exclusively distributed by Stores Specialists Inc., and is located at Greenbelt 4 and Shangri-La East Wing. Follow @ssilifeph on Instagram.
