Two-headed models, gendered plays and 68 twins on the runway: we sing an ode to Alessandro Michele and talk about the most iconic moments in his career.

It started yesterday with disturbing rumors that Alessandro Michele is leaving the Gucci brand after 20 years. And that night, those rumors turned into a bitter truth when Kering made an official statement. The industry genius is indeed stepping down from his creative director role. “Today, my extraordinary journey of more than 20 years comes to an end,” writes Alessandro Michele in a farewell letter to Gucci, whom he calls his second home and foster family. He stood at the head of the Italian brand for seven years and truly made history. “I wanted to make a small revolution at the company: to introduce a new creative language, a new way of expressing beauty and sexuality,” she said after showing her first collection, which she was able to produce as soon as possible in 2015. time.

Michele ruthlessly erased gender boundaries, played with the brand’s rich heritage with incredible passion, and tackled her task of surprising a discerning industry every time. Over the past seven years, we’ve seen off-the-wall double-headed models, accessory dragons and iguanas, and reinterpretations of the gangster chic legend Dapper Den on the runway. Together with Michele, we visited the medieval castle of Castel del Monte, plunged into the mysterious world of Twinsburg, and went to the Gucci theater performance with Jane Birkin.

Last year we praised a mad genius (in the best way possible) and talked about how he’s made Gucci a major protagonist in the fashion industry. Then the Cosmogonie space show and the roundabout Twinsburg show were detailed. And today we want to focus on the most daring and provocative moments in Alessandro Michele’s career.

New era at Gucci

They say that when Gucci CEO Marco Bizzari decided to appoint Michele as creative director, Frida did not wait for her contract to expire and left the fashion house the same day. But for Mikkele, this was a unique chance to realize everything he had dreamed of for years. Moreover, the task before him was extremely difficult: to prepare the autumn-winter collection in just five days. It would seem that even a fashion designer with many years of experience may have difficulties, but not Michele. In a short time, he not only managed to create a collection, but also completely changed our idea of ​​Gucci. On the FW 2015 podium, there was no trace of what Giannini had been working on for so long. Michele has redesigned the fashion house concept, blurring the boundaries of gender and adding bright colors to the collections, and women’s clothing and flip-flops to the men’s look.

Dragons and human heads as accessories

The fashion show of the fall-winter 2018 collection was opened by a long-haired model holding her own head in her hand. And the place of the show was like an anatomical theater with operating tables. Later, the designer explained that he wanted to draw a parallel between the work of a plastic surgeon and a designer who could create a new look for a person with the help of scissors and fabrics. And he definitely succeeded. By the way, it took almost six months to create exact replicas of the heads, and this was done by the Roma studio Makinarium, which created the special effects for the films of Ridley Scott and Danny Boyle. Well, let’s not forget that Jared Leto repeated this trick at the Met Gala a few months later.

Dragons became the second iconic accessory of the collection. And it also has a hidden meaning. Behind their appearance on the runway lies a true story from British newspapers. It turned out that the man found a mummified dragon in a jar in his garage somewhere in Oxfordshire.

lift the curtain

In the fashion industry, a lot remains so-called behind the scenes. However, Alessandro Michele decided to pull back the curtain for the Fall/Winter 2020 fashion show and show the audience how the preparations for the show really went. The models changed to the rhythm of a giant metronome shining right in front of the audience, and then posed in dress covers against the backdrop of the rails and Gucci employees in gray uniforms. And it was another time when the creative director broke all the rules and immersed the show’s guests in the sanctuary.

Space (in every sense) travel

Iridescent night sky, stars and medieval castle of Castel del Monte. No, this isn’t the beginning of a new Dune or the continuation of the iconic Star Wars saga, this is a Gucci cruise show called Cosmogonie. Alessandro Michele, the creative director of the brand, which always attaches great importance to theater, has outdone himself this time. The space show begins with the astronauts talking over the radio, followed by Polish composer Abel Kozeniewski’s classical music combined with barely audible techno beats. The 13th-century octagonal castle was transformed into a starry sky throughout the show, and eventually holograms of constellations and ancient maps appeared on its walls. The models came out, accompanied by theatrical smoke, straight from the castle onto the podium spread around the medieval architectural marvel.

68 twins on the podium

When Alessandro Michele looks like he can no longer surprise us, the spring-summer 2023 show, codenamed Twinsburg, takes place. Randomly (as always) the show started with the voiceover of an old woman telling the story of her relationship with her sister. Later, it was learned that the creative director of the brand, Alessandro Michele, dedicated the fashion show to his mother Eralda and his twin Giuliana. And she explains in a note to the collection: “I had two mothers: Eralda and Juliana. Two extraordinary women who magically mirror each other.”

In the creator’s opinion, only the twins participated in the show (as you might have guessed). True, but eventually it became clear when a wall rose and split the space in two. Later, the models took the podium by holding the hands of their brothers. A fascinating picture that does not leave anyone indifferent. In total, Alessandro Michele drew 68 twins for the show.