The “cruise” fashion shows, presented each May, have become an annual chance for Europe’s biggest labels to woo a far-flung audience, sparing no expense to create a memorable experience beyond the average catwalk show.
Following a few grounded years during the pandemic, the competition is back – and hotter than ever. Chanel staged its blockbuster in Los Angeles, while Dior will host in Mexico later this week.
It was Gucci’s turn to flex on Tuesday night, taking over the city of Seoul. The South Korean market is now seen as vital to Italian and French labels – South Koreans spend more per capita on luxury goods than any other nation, according to a recent report by Morgan Stanley.
Gucci’s show venue of choice was the ceremonial courtyard of the 14th-century Gyeongbokgung Palace. Exquisitely painted in a conveniently Gucci-esque colour palette (red, green and navy) the setting could have been made for the megabrand.
Making the clothes to match up to such a location could have been a challenge. Gucci’s design team blended house codes with inspiration taken directly from modern Seoul city life. The overall show felt youthful and sporty.
The windsurfers and jet-skiers who relax on the Han River were referenced in the neoprene-hybrid looks – in one case, a skin-tight body suit was layered with a ruffled pink chiffon dress. Workwear fabrics were blasted with crystals, while hoodies were made sleek, in elongated proportions. The city’s skateboarders, too, were celebrated – models showcased laptop cases that attached to the underside of their boards, for what is surely the ultimate work-to-play bag.
The Hanbok, South Korea’s traditional national dress, is still spotted in pockets of the city today – particularly on young people dressing up for TikTok. Gucci experimented with the jacket element of this. Supermodel Karen Elson wore a satin coat dress that most echoed the classic look, while the Hanbok’s ribbon ties were applied to fasten pretty silk tops and stiffer jackets alike.
Hollywood-based actresses Dakota Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Saoirse Ronan mingled on the front row with Korean Squid Game actor Lee Jung-jae and Our Blues star Shin Min-a. American rapper A$AP Rocky and American-Korean rapper Jay Park performed after the show. The blending of cultures was seamless – the cosmopolitan clothes designed to appeal to all in the audience, wherever in the world they had travelled from.
Tuesday’s collection was once again presented by Gucci’s collective design team – an interim solution ahead of new creative director Sabato de Sarno’s debut at Milan Fashion Week this September.
It has been just a week since De Sarno arrived at Gucci – it will have been too late for him to have had much influence on this show. Although his appointment was announced in January, he worked his notice at Valentino in Rome. A fortnight ago his beloved Valentino team threw him a perfect send-off, sporting matching “We heart SdS” T-shirts and banners.
Gucci has form when it comes to plucking talents from seemingly nowhere and catapulting them to stardom. De Sarno’s predecessor Alessandro Michele was promoted to creative director in 2015 – since 2002 he had been behind the scenes, working on bags and accessories.
Michele took Gucci’s fortunes to an impressive €10.5 billion a year, his maximalist aesthetic serving to sell fully-loaded looks. The belts, the bags, the brooches, the bijoux – fans just had to buy it all, and wear it all at once.
There was plenty for those fans to want from this collection – clothes fit for a work-play hybrid lifestyle, which could convince anyone to inject a little Seoul into their wardrobe.