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The importance of London as an incubator of the new, a hotbed of true progressive crossbreeding, is undoubted, although largely exaggerated at present. What still exists today is that in London fashion and culture resist, one might say for a short time, the galloping and algorithmic homologation. It is from this perspective of a free zone of infinite possibilities, conjunctions and reinventions that Gucci, in the person of creative director Sabato De Sarno, chose London as the location of the Cruise 2025 fashion show, which took place on 13 May.
The event has a title that is halfway between hope and exhortation – We’ll always have London – while the place that hosts it is the Tate Modern, a very lively and aggregative cultural institution, itself the result of reinvention, now twenty-four years ago, of a pre-existing industrial building. In short, the pieces of the story are all there. De Sarno, who once again neither speaks nor illustrates verbally, avoiding the comparison, entrusts the explanations to a letter, placed on the metal seats: «Exploring a creative direction means entering a pre-existing space and making it seen through your eyes , going from room to room in order to remodel the building – he says -. I owe a lot to this city, which welcomed me and knew how to listen to me. The same goes for Gucci, whose founder was inspired by his London experience. The return of the maison is motivated by the desire to immerse ourselves in the unmistakable essence, in the creative force of London, with its infinite ability to relate contrasts and make them dialogue, encouraging co-existence.”
The collection is in fact an act of coexistence: it combines what one might say is De Sarno’s signature – monochrome purity, refined in execution but extremely normal in appearance – with abundant sampling from the Gucci archive, from Tom Ford’s seductions to pussy bow and pearls by Alessandro Michele. In the middle there is also Miuccia Prada, a bit of Matthieu Blazy’s Bottega Veneta and a lot of 60s and 70s vintage, complete with high martingales, protest suedes, Anglomania tartan and wild chamomile prints.
Full archive for bags, and very desirable shoes in the form of ballet flats with horsebits and teddy girl creepers with white socks. It’s a great collage of “London style”, here: a dance of contrasts amalgamated in harmonious disequilibrium; certainly De Sarno’s best performance so far. The rigor of the lines is charged with a moderate romanticism, but what is missing is the fearless spirit of London, the vitality of the ideas that are not born in vitro but from authentic energy. It is felt as a feeling of creative fear, which perhaps arises from the fear of becoming irrelevant. However, it would be the moment to really dare, because fashion in general, not just this brand, needs it badly.