From five to two seasonless collections: Alessandro Michele, Gucci's creative director, launches a fashion model closer to consumers, the environment and post-Covid-19 needs.
Thus spoke Alessandro Michele. And the whole world (of fashion) stood still. Of course, Gucci's creative director did not launch into a parable about the death of God as in Nietzsche's writing, but into that of the death of fashion — at least as we have always known it. It was about time, one might say. And rather than prophesying the coming of the Übermensch, he predicted that of "seasonless collections". From five (two for men, two for women and one cruise) to two a year, ideally presented in October and March.
The setting is one of the many virtual platforms, where Michele held a press conference to share his reflections — he calls them notes from the silence — born out of these months of pause. He laid bare the cracks that the fashion system had been ignoring for years, such as the overly tight timing of collections or the misalignment between what is found in store and the season, before going on to describe what the new Gucci will look like.
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"I am not a deserter, but a conspirator," says Michele, invoking shortly afterwards that "less but better" which looks so good on paper, but makes the wrists of those who will have to balance the company books tremble. Fashion as it exists today is no longer sustainable, the creative director states, adding that he wants to abandon "the tired ritual of seasonality and shows in order to reclaim a new rhythm of time, more in keeping with my expressive needs." But this is no solo escape on the part of one of the world's best-known brands; rather, it is an invitation to collective reflection, in which the Kering group positions itself as a trailblazer for a movement already sweeping through the fashion world.
"Our reckless actions have burned down the house we live in"; it is time to slow down and rethink the system within frameworks that are kinder to the Planet. "We will meet only twice a year, to share the chapters of a new story. They will be irregular, impertinent and profoundly free chapters. They will be written mixing rules and genres. They will draw on new spaces, linguistic codes and communication platforms."
In short, Michele announces a veritable revolution, a kind of return to purity, touching on manners, timings and places. And linguistic codes too: "I would like to abandon the arsenal of acronyms that have colonised our world: cruise, pre-fall, spring-summer, fall-winter. They strike me as strange, undernourished words. Acronyms of an impersonal discourse whose meaning we have lost."
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It is a beautiful statement of intent that follows in the footsteps of two other designers who, in light of the crisis we are living through, have called for a return to a more authentic fashion: Giorgio Armani and Dries van Noten. The former, in his now famous letter to Women's Wear Daily, both denounced the problem of the overproduction of garments and called for a slowing down of the fashion machine so as to reassess and add value to the supply chain. King Giorgio also decided to "desert" the virtual shows of July promoted by the Camera della moda in favour of a September presentation, announcing his desire to bring haute couture back to Milan.
The Belgian designer, meanwhile, has said enough to fashion's frenzy. No more shows telling people what they will find in stores after months and months, but rather after just a few weeks. Sales not at mid-season but at the end of the season. And then fewer collections and more quality: "The pandemic has made us realise we were on the wrong path. We need to change." But he is merely "the gladiator" who rallied hundreds of industry insiders — from New York to Paris, London and Milan — proposing to sign a letter calling for radical changes to the system. Fashion that is closer to the consumer, then, but also to the environment and to the new demands that coronavirus has imposed. This is the age of grand declarations — will the age of action follow?