The Master

GUCCI’S ALESSANDRO MICHELE ON HIS POWER PRINCIPLE

- GUY TREBAY

Almost five years to the month since the lightning strike that was Alessandro Michele’s debut at Gucci — an event that business schools will study for a long time to come — the designer found himself reflecting on his own inevitable obsolescence.

“Maybe one day I will not be relevant,” Michele said on a bright Saturday afternoon at the Gucci Hub, located in a former aeronautics factory. “Maybe one day I will not be in fashion.”

If the idea — and the vague rumours that inevitably attach to it — distressed the designer, it failed to show on his face. Dressed in faded jeans and Gucci sneakers, an 18th-century jeweled necklace tossed over his vintage cabled Aran sweater, he seemed bemused by all that had transpired since he, a one-time accessories designer for the brand, was elevated after news broke in 2014 that Frida Giannini, Gucci’s creative director, was being ousted.