By separating men’s and women’s clothing and avoiding mid-season collections, the Italian luxury brand will cut the number of annual catwalks it holds from five to two.
In a series of diary entries titled “Notes from the Silence,” posted Sunday to Michele’s Instagram account, the creator said he intended to “ditch the worn-out ritual of seasonality and entertainment” in order to to “regain a new pace”.
“We will only meet twice a year, to share the chapters of a new story,” he wrote, adding: “I would like to leave behind the paraphernalia of leitmotifs that colonized our world before. : cruise, pre-fall, spring-summer, fall-winter. I think those are outdated and undernourished words. “
Big brands have traditionally followed a busy calendar of separate events for men and women during Fall-Winter and Spring-Summer Fashion Weeks in New York, Paris, London and Milan. Many also organize additional one-off “cruise” and pre-fall shows.
But the coronavirus pandemic has intensified existing concerns about the environmental and economic sustainability of the jet-set calendar – and the consumer cycles it encourages.
Michele, who worked with Fendi before joining Gucci as a bag designer in 2002, said his new strategy emerged while he was confined to his home during the lockdown. Its goal of “purifying the essential by getting rid of the unnecessary” is linked to concerns about the environmental footprint of the fashion industry, he explained.
Designer Alessandro Michele at the Gucci Spring / Summer 2020 show during Milan Fashion Week credit“>Credit: Victor Boyko / Getty Images Europe / Getty Images for Gucci
“Our reckless actions burned down the house we live in,” one of the diary’s entries read. “We think of ourselves as separate from nature, we felt cunning and all-powerful. We have usurped nature, we have dominated it and hurt it.”
On Monday, Michele confirmed the move in a video press conference, in which he said the move was approved by Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri.
Reverse tide
A number of other luxury brands have signaled changes to their future calendars amid the coronavirus pandemic – albeit on less engaging terms than Gucci.
Gucci Fall-Winter 2020 show during Milan Fashion Week.
Likewise, the #rewiringfashion initiative called for the men’s and women’s fashion weeks to be combined, while claiming that the shows are being held “too much before” the items are released. The campaign, which was launched by the publication of the Business of Fashion sector, proposes to move the spring-summer fashion weeks to January and February, and fall-winter to June.
Gucci Fall-Winter 2020 show during Milan Fashion Week.
“Together, we strongly recommend that designers not focus on more than two main collections per year,” the statement read. “We believe this can give our talents the time they need to reconnect with the creativity and craftsmanship that make our field so unique in the first place. A slower pace also offers an opportunity to reduce stress levels for designers and their teams, which in turn will have a positive effect on the overall well-being of the industry. “
