Imagine walking into a mythical forest, where birds chirp at the sound of your footsteps and greenery covers almost every inch of your sight. Then behind velvet red curtains, you enter a red room that takes you to a 70’s retro club with Gucci Gang blasting from every corner of the room. Well, that’s what it’s like stepping into the Gucci Aria preview – except racks of glamorous clothing and shelves of leather handbags are at the foreground of every room. We got invited to explore the Gucci Aria collection which was showcased in April, and let’s just say we were entranced into a Gucci-fied fantasy world with no exit in sight (and we didn’t mind it).
Earlier last year, Alessandro Michele, creative director of the Italian fashion house, announced that Gucci would no longer participate in fashion weeks, as his vision for the brand involved a seasonless cycle. Now, Gucci showcases two collections a year, because ‘autumn/winter’ and ‘spring summer’ “are stale and underfed words… clothes should have a longer life than that which these words attribute to them,” says Michele.
The Gucci Aria collection was showcased back in April of this year, and it just so happened to also be the brand’s 100th birthday. To celebrate, Michele found inspiration in pop culture and music, hence naming the collection Aria, which means ‘song’ in Italian and is usually referred to as a solo piece within a longer piece of music, typically found in opera. There’s no denying that pop culture, music and art play a large role in what designers present to the world at their shows, just as fashion can likewise influence pop culture. Gucci is undeniably one of the most mentioned brands in music, with songs like Gucci Gang by Lil Pump and Green Gucci Suit by Rick Ross and Future. Other references of music being influenced by fashion includes Jay Z’s Tom Ford and Cardi B’s famous line in I Like It, “I like those Balenciagas, the ones that look like socks.”
Music and fashion are so intertwined that Gucci has even released their own playlist on Spotify which was played at the fashion show that you can now listen to.
