Curations: Gucci designer Alessandro Michele’s ‘Epilogue’ campaign wraps up his 2020 trilogy that rewrites the rules of fashion
- The Italian label’s creative director presented the final chapter of his ‘fairy tale in three parts’ aimed at breaking down traditional roles and rituals within the fashion industry
- Gucci’s designers were turned into fashion models, and starred in a 12-hour live-stream show from Rome that went behind the scenes of a photo shoot
During Milan Fashion Week in February, Gucci opened the first chapter of what creative director Alessandro Michele called “a fairy tale in three parts”. The plot of his story, which unfolded throughout 2020, revolved around a quest to upend the rules of the fashion world. It concluded with the launch of the “Epilogue” campaign, which turned the Italian label’s designers into models in Michele’s latest act of fashion subversion.
Michele’s fairy tale began with a celebration of the rituals of a live fashion show, which he staged at the brand’s headquarters, known as Gucci Hub. For years, the fashion runway has been a platform for maisons to put their creative ideas on display, but Michele decided to make a statement by taking the audience behind the scenes for his show, titled “An Unrepeatable Ritual”. On a revolving platform behind glass, models could be seen amid clothing racks and make-up tables as they were dressed in the Gucci looks. “I played at reversing perspective,” Michele explained. “What is the impact of unveiling what builds illusion?”
After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Michele shook up this fashion ritual permanently. In May, he announced that Gucci would stop presenting collections according to the traditional five-show annual fashion calendar, and instead stage only two seasonless shows per year.
The second chapter of the Gucci tale, titled “The Ritual”, took shape as Michele devised the concept of the label’s advertising campaign. “I let myself go with the idea that beauty can appear, unpredictably and wonderfully imperfect, through the absence of control,” he said. He decided to give up his authority as creative director, and asked the campaign’s models to take over as photographers and directors to create their own images. The models shot the campaign in their homes while going about their daily routines – a variation on this year’s work-from-home arrangements that made the flamboyant fashions feel more relatable.
For the closing chapter, “Epilogue”, Michele decided to switch up roles again, so that Gucci’s clothes would be modeled by the people who created them. “The designers with whom, every day, I share the daze of creation will become the performers of a new story,” he explained. “It’s a process of role reversal, once more.”
In addition, the creative director provided another peek behind the curtain with a 12-hour live stream in July that showed the Gucci team preparing for and participating in the photo shoot for the “Epilogue” campaign. The video, which also served as a virtual fashion show, was directed by renowned Italian filmmaker brothers Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo at Rome’s Palazzo Sacchetti. Viewers were taken into chaotic greenrooms and observed make-up artists, clothes fittings and masked vendors sanitising their hands, along with the designers-turned-models posing for the camera on the palatial set.
The collection’s lookbook displayed the fashions in what looked like pop-up boxes on a vintage computer, playing off the virtual viewing concept while enhancing the retro feel of the designs. The models were identified by their roles on the Gucci design team, bringing the entire creative process full circle.
While the “Epilogue” campaign is the end of Gucci’s style narrative for 2020, it marks the beginning of a new era in fashion. Now that Michele has wiped the slate clean and rewritten the rules, fashion watchers will have to wait and see what next year has to offer from the brand.