“This is my way of dreaming, without hurry, visualising and stratifying aspirations as if they were the bricks of a house,” wrote Sabato De Sarno in a statement about his second collection at the helm of Gucci. Perhaps as a message to anyone demanding an instant shift in vision from the Italian house following Alessandro Michele’s departure, the new creative lead isn’t rushing his process.
With a show scored by Mark Ronson at Milan Fashion Week, the excellence of Gucci’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection was evident in the details. Not only did he set out to make garments that were pleasing to the eye, but his attention to the way clothes moved and the emotions they evoked conveyed a quiet sense of disruption. Gestures of subversion in ‘ugly’ colours, unexpected silhouettes and eclectic clashing brought a sense of character to refined pieces, playing on this subtle feeling of ‘wrongness’ that inspired De Sarno.
Elsewhere, shift dresses comprised overlapping layers held together by laces and embroidery for a 1930s feel. Jacquard prints depicted a geometric heron, distinguishable only by an up-close look. Transparent or slightly off-tone sequins, enriched knitwear and crystal fringing mimicked a ribbed effect—this season dialled up the glitz from his Spring/Summer 2024 collection.
De Sarno‘s quietly emphatic approach focuses on construction over ideas. Utilising his background behind the scenes in luxury, he mused that this collection was about finding gaps and meticulously filling them rather than embellishing an already saturated world.
“In my fashion, as in my dreams, the exercise is the same. Search within the folds for a void that wants to be filled. Look at the detail very closely before feeling free to back away in pursuit of a broader perspective,” he explains. “Capture the extraordinary where the ordinary is expected.”
Juxtaposed with Michele’s fantastical vision, De Sarno offers a more grounded, but equally respectable take on dreaming. “My dreams, as with my fashion, always converse with reality,” he says. “I am not searching for another world to live in, but rather of ways to live in this world.”
And though there will always be those who love to indulge in otherworldly whimsy, what De Sarno puts forward has the legs to appeal to the broader market that Kering, its parent company, endeavours to capture. But just because a net is cast wider doesn’t make it run any less deep. As exemplified with Fall/Winter 2024, De Sarno is highly effective in imbuing heart and soul into pieces ripe with commercial appeal.
