A NEW NORMATIVITY

Staving off boredom his own way, Alessandro Michele showcases a pared down, simplified and streamlined Gucci Spring/Summer 2020 collection.

- John Ng

It’s not unusual for Alessandro Michele to provoke his audience with his magical, dreamlike vision of fashion. And the creative director did not disappoint at the Gucci Spring/ Summer 2020 show in Milan. Featuring more than 100 looks, Michele divided the presentation into two parts. It kick-started with the redlit room flashed white where 20-odd models wearing head-to-toe variations of the white straitjacket, some with big back buckles, paraded on a moving conveyor belt in a show space which looked like a cross between an airport terminal and a surgical room.

And then the lights went out, signalling the end of the disconcerting prelude. What exactly was the message Michele tried to convey? The show notes explained that fashion can, “let people walk through fields of possibilities, giving hints and evoking openness, cultivating promises of beauty, offering testimonies and prophecies, sacralising every form of diversity, feeding indispensable self-determination skills.”