Gucci stages stinging nettle cruise collection in Florence

Alessandro Michele’s invitation for Gucci cruise 2018 was contained inside a pink box reading Urtica Ferox, which is Latin for stinging nettle. And this was a prickly, and precious, show. Staged in a Renaissance Palazzo, it featured the usual Michele cast of characters. Little different from recent outings by Michele, except perhaps for the setting.

 Dakota and Grace Johnson showed up, as did Stella Banderas, for the ceremony inside Palazzo Pitti, on the left bank of the Arno. Its nerve centre was Galleria Palatina, where the cast marched before legendary works by Titian, Botticelli, Caravaggio and Tintoretto. Quite what those Renaissance masters would have made of Jared Leto – wearing sunglasses to an evening show – and a kissing pink dressing gown; yellow ski-pants and silver boxing boots we will leave to the ghost of Sir Harold Acton to surmise.

Those who were not there could easily follow the proceedings via Instagram. The hirsute young models twisting their way through giant marble doorways, emoting haughtily on an oddly banal beige carpet.
 
For the girls: dafty chesterfields with fur collars: elongated Grey Gardens cardigans; gold and blue rugby sweaters; diaphanous semi-sheer gowns in organza; Silver Surfer jodhpurs. As Michele likes his gals a little daft, we got lots of big bows and handbags worn around the neck. And, of course, the inevitable twisting, embroidered silver snake.
 
For the boys: wacky tennis sweaters; jean jackets in pink silk; dudes in reversible baseball jackets or white tennis shorts or pants cut at half mast – meaning way above the ankle. Fops in Gucci logo material Little Boy suits. Their hair embedded with golden metal leaves; their necks tied with florid gold necklaces.

A harpist playing in one corner of a room. Like the collection the soundtrack was wilfully eclectic: from Hungry Ghosts’ Trying to Lift a Rock with a Bottle on your Head; to the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin’s Imitazione Delle Campane. Michele took his bow dressed in scruffy jeans and an oversized Gucci T-Shirt daubed in paint.
 
In just 27 months, this designer has been a remarkable success story, building Gucci into one of the world’s fastest growing fashion brands. His is a singular, romantic and often beautiful vision. However, this felt very much like the same old same old. All too familiar. From the beginning, Michele has been much more loved by bloggers than by professional critics. One reason might be gleaned from Instagram. Where one can find endless images posted today by social media influencers of the pink peonies left in each of their rooms in Florence; alongside new pairs of sunglasses and baseball caps personalized with their own names. Now that couldn’t have influenced the influencers could it?