Another one bites the dust. Alessandro Michele, creative director extraordinaire of Gucci, has announced he will be breaking free of the “worn-out” shackles of the seasonal fashion calendar, shifting to a two-show-per-year model.
“I will abandon the worn-out ritual of seasonalities and shows to regain a new cadence, closer to my expressive call,” he wrote in an excerpt from his diary, “The Sacred Power of Producing Reverberations,” which he shared on Instagram. “We will meet just twice a year, to share the chapters of a new story. Irregular, joyful and absolutely free chapters, which will be written blending rules and genres, feeding on new spaces, linguistic codes and communication platforms.”
The memo, one of 18 notes from six letters written during lockdown, was effectively Michele’s prelude of what is to come: today he is hosting a virtual press conference with select journalists to detail Gucci’s future in this post-pandemic world.
Articulated with the kind of romantic whimsy that’s come to define the designer and his Gucci years, the news of Gucci’s new, season-less model and bucking of tradition is in line with Michele’s overall direction. The designer has always marched to the beat of his own drum, and it seems the global crisis wreaking havoc on the fashion industry is affording him the opportunity to fully dance to his own rhythm even more.
Design peer, Marc Jacobs, agrees, replying to Michele: “What calendar?? Onward. The old days don’t work. Look up!” Adding: “Bravo. Couldn’t agree more. Let’s not repeat the past and expect different results.”
The news of Gucci’s departure follows the collective call led by Dries Van Noten to reformat the fashion system, and fellow luxury House, Saint Laurent, who officially bowed out of the fashion week calendar earlier in the month.
Read: SAINT LAURENT BOWS OUT OF PARIS FASHION WEEK
Now falling like dominoes, the question resonates even more profoundly: is the fashion calendar dead? According to Michele and friends, yes.
