Some designers present clothes; others know how to manufacture a moment. Demna has long belonged to the latter camp. His arrival at Gucci had all the makings of one of the season’s defining events and, unsurprisingly, it hardly went unnoticed. His debut prompted opinions, memes, headlines and debate for days, proving something the Georgian designer understands particularly well: what it takes for an image to lodge itself in our collective memory. And if that opening chapter needed an impossible-to-ignore finale, Kate Moss was there to provide it.
Few could forget Moss appearing in a black dress cut entirely open at the back, with a Gucci logo thong underneath. Little else was required. That image now finds its continuation in the House’s new Spring campaign, where she slips back into the look to lip-sync Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”. Around her, a dance floor gradually fills with encounters, glances and bodies drawn towards one another. Johan Renck directs the scene, but looking elsewhere becomes rather difficult whenever Moss enters the frame. At this point, turning one of her appearances into an event still seems remarkably effortless.
There was never much chance, either, that Demna would surround himself with predictable characters. Xiao Zhan, Jin, NINGNING, Tom Brady, Alex Consani, EsDeeKid, Lee Young Ae, Shawn Mendes, Rico Nasty and Tarzzan complete a cast that, read in sequence, feels almost wilfully incongruous. That is precisely part of its appeal. There is no neatly defined Gucci tribe here, but rather an assembly of personalities drawn from entirely different worlds. Instead of telling us who ought to wear Gucci, the campaign seems more interested in discovering just how many different people can.
Beyond the film, the mood shifts into something altogether more restrained. Photographed by Michal Chelbin, the still images borrow from the poses, compositions and grandeur of classical painting, yet the real interest lies in the tension between the two: unmistakably contemporary figures placed within an atmosphere of almost historical solemnity. The result avoids reducing heritage to an exercise in nostalgia, leaving enough room for the personalities themselves to determine the character of each image.
As they wear the collection with which Demna officially inaugurated his Gucci, a new language for the House begins to emerge. Its silhouettes, textures and seemingly nonchalant approach to dressing offer the first real clues as to what his vision might actually look like. The legacy remains — attempting to erase it would be absurd — but Demna appears less interested in revering it than in putting it to use. And perhaps that is precisely the point: Gucci does not need another lesson in its own history. It needs to discover what it can do with it now.
Yet this is where the new chapter becomes genuinely interesting. Beyond “Wicked Game”, Kate Moss and a cast seemingly assembled to set the internet alight, Demna is returning something to Gucci that no great fashion house should ever relinquish: the ability to create anticipation before we have even decided whether we like what we are seeing. It may still be too early to know exactly where he intends to take us. One thing, however, is already clear: whenever Gucci speaks, we are listening again.
Have a look at the Gucci Primavera campaign below:
