Gucci as a 'tiger' in search of a relaunch. Diesel invents a treasure hunt
Fashion week for S/S 2026 opens with Demna anticipating her vision for the brand with a short film with a stellar cast. Grace overflows from Alberta Ferretti, Iceberg mixes tailoring and sportswear
3' min read
3' min read
After months of vaticini, forecasts and predictions, the season of radical fashion change finally begins in Milan with a domino effect of identity shifts rather than a bombastic reset. This is the air of the times: it is useless to read them through outdated paradigms, or the senseless obsession with the new. The idea, after all, that a different creative director should wipe the slate clean of everything that came before, is in the end only one of the possible choices, often the most utopian and not always the most effective.
The debut of King Midas Demna at Gucci, for example, despite the expressionist rawness of the stylistic sign that is the universally recognised hallmark of this author, is closely related as much to the recent work of Alessandro Michele - imagine characters, then dress them - as, in terms of forms, with the more distant but still relevant legacy of Tom Ford - discreet but algid men and women - as well as naturally recalling, with changed codes and archetypes, added GG and clamps, his own work at Balenciaga, whose command he left at the very beginning of the summer. A very short time to emerge from the chrysalis of the past.
In fact, the debut is a vision in nuce - but very clear, perfect for the target audience - entrusted to a hilarious short film, entitled "The Tiger", directed by Oscar winner Spike Jonze together with Halina Reijn, starring Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Ed Harris, while for the fashion show we will have to wait until next season. The surprise of the premiere, at least in terms of fashion content, is to all intents and purposes nullified by the release, already on Monday, of the sardonic lookbook of the collection: a gallery of Italian types gathered under the idea of The Family and introduced by the archetype, the trunk.
Demna does Demna does Gucci: the web is divided, the cynical provocation of reiterating the known with a new tag hits the mark, and what's more, these clothes will be available as early as Friday in selected shops. The new, or apparently so, can't wait, while storytelling makes a powerful comeback.
At Diesel, Glenn Martens, a mercurial author in perpetual simmer, an affabulator in every field, from the material of clothes to communication, never ceases to experiment with modes of presentation that, in perfect accord with the brand's disruptively pop spirit, bring the public closer by breaking down the retablo of the show for the chosen few. This season he invents an egg hunt throughout the city: alien and glassy eggs, of human proportions, each containing a look, on live models. To the lucky discoverer of all 52 eggs hidden in the centre of Milan, the privilege of a tailor-made garment. It is a gimmick that is perhaps cumbersome, certainly energetic, and that dialogues well with a collection in which the play on worn-out fabric, a true identifying mark, takes a double-face turn, with the interior and exterior of the clothes in constant dialogue.
