Italian fashion brand Gucci touched down in London, transforming the industrial interior of the Tate Modern into a lush green jungle.
It marked creative director Sabato De Sarno’s first cruise show, and brought in a star-studded crowd of celebrities to the front row.
De Sarno’s first few collections for Gucci have been met with a mixed response, his minimalist aesthetic a stark departure from previous designer Alessandro Michele’s signature maximalist style.
Cruise collections come in between the major autumn/winter and spring/summer fashion shows. Gucci normally stages its runways in Milan, but cruise collections are a chance to take the brand to a new location – with London following last year’s destination of Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea.
The interior of the Tate Modern is a vast, concrete space but Gucci transformed it with hundreds of ferns, moss and plants. These natural motifs making their way into the clothes too – seen in subtle floral embroidery on jackets and denim pieces.
According to WWD, Gucci planned to donate around 10,000 plants from the show to community projects in London after the show.
This collection shows De Sarno finding his voice at Gucci, with infinitely wearable outfits of slouchy jeans, covetable outerwear and a slight Seventies vibe – albeit much more low-key than Michele channelled during his tenure. Instead, De Sarno’s collection saw ephemeral pussy-bow blouses, chic beige capes, leather two-pieces and a consistent motif of the brands interlocking double-G logo.
British influences permeated the Italian fashion house’s newest collection – such as the oversized green varsity jacket, which seems to be inspired by one worn by Diana, Princess of Wales in the 1990s.
As in any Gucci show, accessories were front and centre. According to De Sarno, it’s time to ditch the heels – and pick up sensible ballerina flats instead. Bags were particularly elegant, ranging from giant Jackie styles to smaller handheld versions.
There was a reason De Sarno wanted to show his debut cruise collection in London. On Gucci’s Instagram, he posted: “We chose London for the Cruise show, knowing that was the right choice.
“I owe a lot to this city, it has welcomed and listened to me. The same is true for Gucci, whose founder was inspired by his experience there.
“The House’s return is driven by a desire to be immersed in its distinctive essence, its creative driving force with its limitless capability to put together contrasts, make them converse, and find ways to coexist. Today we are here to celebrate that spirit.”
The show was called ‘We’ll always have London’, partly inspired by the brand’s founder, Guccio Gucci, travelling to London as a teenager and working as a bellhop in luxury hotel the Savoy. According to the fashion house, Guccio took inspiration from that experience when he opened his first store in Florence in 1921 to sell luggage.
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In the build-up to the event, London icons like supermodel Kate Moss and rapper Little Simz showed off the city in promotional videos posted to Instagram, dressed in head-to-toe Gucci.
Moss was present on the front row, keeping things low-key in a black mini dress, sheer tights and black overcoat, accompanied by fellow model daughter Lila, in a pale yellow matching suit with mini shorts.
Elsewhere on the star-studded front row was singer Blondie, whose song Heart Of Glass was played during the show, and Irish actor Paul Mescal, wearing an all-black look with a deep-V shirt.
Mescal was sat between actor Salma Hayek and her husband, Francois-Henri Pinault, who is chair and chief executive of Kering, Gucci’s parent company, and Gucci front-row favourite, singer Solange, who matched the set in a glittering green dress.
Fresh off the release of her third sutdio album, Radical Optimism, singer Dua Lipa wore a black jacket embossed with the Gucci logo, from the brand’s last Milan Fashion Week collection.
By Prudence Wade, PA
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