Writer ARIADNA FERNÁNDEZ UJJA
After ten years with Frida Giannini as Gucci’s creative director, it was announced last December her departure -and that of her husband Patricio di Marco, CEO of the house-, as well as the termination of her contract. Giannini was scheduled to present her latest fall/winter 2015-16 women’s collection on February 25 during Milan fashion week and announced that the next addition would not be effective until March 2015, after presenting her women’s collection. But a matter of days ago, the Kering group – owner of the Gucci house – anticipated the departure of its creative director immediately.
With so few days left, only Alessandro Michele, directly responsible for the leather, jewelry, shoes and home collections of the firm, could be the star candidate to captain a house as powerful as Gucci. No one better than him, an unknown face but who knew the brand and Giannini very well, to go out to greet after a parade of androgynous aesthetics whose epigraph read “Urban Romanticism”, leaving behind a smoke of speculation about who could have been the new creative director (Heidi Slimane, Riccardo Tisci and even came to talk about the return of Tom Ford). The Kering group, and especially Gucci, repeat the story that already happened with the previous creative director, Giannini, and return to bet on the familiarity of professionals who know very well the house, the team and the ideology of the brand. “Alessandro Michele has been chosen to fill the position thanks to the contemporary vision he has articulated for the brand and which he will now bring to life,” confirmed Marco Bizzarri, president and CEO of Gucci. But in this latest Pitti Uomo runway show, despite working with Giannini, the Roman designer presented a slight break with the aesthetics of the brand’s recent seasons with a collection that advanced a step towards modernity and an avant-garde future with a fusion of genres that defies pre-established codes. Michele, who will be working hard and tirelessly until the presentation of the women’s collection on February 25, will undoubtedly be the focus of all fashionistas.
