Following Alessandro Michele, Gucci's fashion director since January 2015 has been a wild ride. Managing the seemingly impossible, Michele has reimagined Gucci to an extent it surely never saw for itself. A pioneer of the maximalist aesthetic, Michele's style sensibility is an over the top mix of extravagant, whimsical, vintage-inspired designs that are anything but coy.
The shoe of the summer has been Michele's Princetown loafer slide, which Net-a-porter alone sold 13,000 pairs of. Seeing the Princetown in its various iterations seemingly everywhere, it certainly looked to me like the must-have shoe!
Staying true and committed to his aesthetic, Michele's fashion extravaganza will spin off into the home goods market with the September launch of the Gucci Decor Homeware line. As Katie Berrington of Vogue UK explains "The collection is designed to be both beautiful and practical with brightly topped folding tables epitomizing Michele's imaginative notion "that if you make pieces easily movable you can constantly dress and redress your environment." Certainly a novel approach.
The home decor items will be sold alongside the clothing and accessories collections rather than in designated stand alone stores. Another departure for Michele has been combining the men's and women's runway shows.
Although maximalism is not my particular sensibility, I definitely appreciate Michele's magpie effect of combining disparate patterns, colors and fabrics in his collections. As for the home decor, a few well placed pieces scattered around will be a welcome antidote to the grey and beige interiors dominating the past few years. So, bring it on Alessandro Michele!!
All Fall 2017 ready-to-wear runway photography from vogue.com
Alessandro Michele's collaboration with Richard Ginori the Florentine porcelain company produced these charming smaller items - so vintagey you might have happened upon them at Portobello market, Brooklyn Flea or your grandmother's curio cabinet
