After going seasonless, it’s dreaming up a circular production line steering the Italian luxury fashion house towards sustainability, for Alessandro Michele’s next trick, he’s conjuring up Off The Grid, the first collection from Gucci Circular Lines, complete with a campaign led by Academy Award-winning actress and longtime environmental activist Jane Fonda, who has been a strong voice about climate change for decades.

Shot by photographer and director Harmony Korine, the global campaign sees Fonda next to Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Nas X, singer and songwriter King Princess, record producer and actor Miyavi and environmentalist David de Rothschild as city dwellers who reside in a rustic treehouse consctructed in a metropolis of concrete and glass buildings.

Why a treehouse? The idea, as envisioned by Alessandro Michele, explores our instinctive and increasing desire to live in a natural environment. The treehouse reminds us of a simple way of life, emerging as a powerful metaphor for the desire to escape conventional life and relish the experience of living more Off The Grid.

As for the collection, Michele designed genderless luggage, accessories, footwear and ready-to-wear, using recycled, organic, bio-based and sustainably sourced materials, including Econyl®, a regenerated nylon made from nylon offcuts and pre- and post-consumer waste.

Alessandro Michele reveals, “The collection is the result of teamwork; everybody brought something to it. And in the campaign, too, there is this idea of dialogue among people building something new. I imagined that we could build a treehouse in a city centre, all together, like kids playing in the park. Because all of us need to build this house or to find out that our planet exists, even where it seems it’s not there, or it’s far away.”

If you’re also looking to get off the grid (see what we did there?), Gucci invites everyone for its treehouse experience. Via the Gucci App, Gucci challenges you to a quiz about the collection and its circular production process. By answering correctly, you can build your own virtual treehouse and eventually unlock a dedicated wallpaper to share on your socials.

The campaign is also set to break on Gucci ArtWalls worldwide from 15 June in the following locations: Milan’s Largo la Foppa, in the district of Corso Garibaldi; just off East London’s famous Brick Lane; Shanghai’s Fengsheng Li, Jingan district; and Lafayette Street, in Manhattan’s SoHo neighbourhood; Hong Kong’s D’Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong; and Yongkang Street, Da’an District, Taipei.

With Gucci re-evaluting its cycles and embarking on a quest to produce less waste as well as joining efforts against COVID-19 and fighting for racial equality, the soundtrack to the Gucci Off The Grid campaign, J. Nash’s hit song I Can See Clearly Now couldn’t ring more true. Let’s hope we have more “bright, bright sunshiny days” ahead of us.

Gucci Off The Grid campaign was shot in Los Angeles prior to recent events.

Creative Director: Alessandro Michele
Art Director: Christopher Simmonds
Photographer/Director: Harmony Korine
Talents: Jane Fonda, Lil Nas X, King Princess, Miyavi, David de Rothschild
Make Up: Thomas de Kluyver
Hair Stylist: Alex Brownsell
Music: I Can See Clearly Now by J. Nash