Like the fizz of Champagne, exquisitely dressed characters suddenly spill out of an apartment door. With the sun set and the day’s responsibilities put to bed, the evening is the time we let loose and come alive; night-time is the time for freedom. This shines through in the effervescence of every character that tumbles out. As we watch each person deliberate whether to head left or right, Episode 7 feels consequent of each previous episode: following the influence and lessons imposed by Gucci and Alessandro Michele, each person is finally free and educated to make their own decisions. Notably, they all turn right; towards freedom, towards expression; towards the non-binary; towards the open-ended. Are we, the viewer, also falling out of this door? If so, we must turn the same way.

Silvia Calderoni wears a three-piece suit with a buttoned gilet, pink silk shirt and Gucci Eyewear glasses. She looks strikingly beautiful yet luxuriously simplistic, the look’s clean cuts creating a prominence which can only be interpreted as a power statement. Wordlessly, Silvia Calderoni tells of her inner spark, her flare for fashion and heart of liberal expression. Gus Van Sant’s windowpane suit is equally stunning. Worn with a silk shirt and tie, the neon’s vibrancy is complimented by a nude coloured tie, creating a perfect middle ground between the avant-garde and the ordinary. Although ‘avant-garde’ seems an insult to the Gucci collection, Alessandro Michele has designed pieces which are simply too remarkable to liken to anything else.

Once we watch each person disperse into the night, Lu Han takes the spotlight. As we watch Lu Han shorten the hem of a red dress (from Alessandro Michele’s 2015 F/W collection) there feels a symbolic inference about the relativity of life. Some things require a connection with the past, a sensitivity to history and its influences; other things should stand alone, a blend only of the new and contemporary, glancing towards the future.

Episode 7 is escapism, each character breaking out into a wider, fresher perspective. As Silvia Calderoni rides around Rome on a motorbike, taking in the night scape’s beauty, she too is free. Journeying from her apartment (Episode 1) to the café (Episode 2), to the post office (Episode 3), to the Theatre (Episode 4), to The Neighbours (Episode 5) and to the Vintage Shop (Episode 6), Silvia finally exists without limitations, finding her place in the open-ended possibility of the night scene of Rome. Shadowing Silvia, swimming in the waves of Gucci, we have been awakened. As she finally takes centre stage – literally and symbolically – the series has come to an end. The audience has seen all there is, Gucci has given all they can, shared and told all they believe and now, it is down to us. Drunk on the Gucci collection and full on their purest most life-changing creativity, we are free to move on and, ultimately, live the Gucci way.

Words by Hannah Emery, Graphics by Victoria Zhao

The post GucciFest – Day Seven: ‘A Nightly Walk’ appeared first on Voir Fashion.

Fashion is thrilling, expressionist, liberating, inspiring; but fashion can never be truly original. Even for the most creative, imaginative designer like Alessandro Michele, fashion is a rich collage of the past – each new creation gaining stimuli and adapting ideas from the great designers of years before. We are constantly in an open relationship with fashion, every piece of clothing partially woven with elements of Vintage. Day Six celebrates this. ‘The Vintage Shop’ is a rich festivity of clothes, an appreciation of fashion as an ever-growing, ever-changing art-form. Episode 6 is an exhibition of experimentation and joy.

To reduce the looks of the episode to single elements is to oversimply Gucci and their intrinsic enthusiasm for the artistic power of clothes. Geometric prints whisper of the 60s; earthy neutral colours reminisce of the 70s; embellished denim famous in the 90s; conversational novelty prints popular in the 00s; Gucci’s looks are a rich cocktail of inspiration. Fashion, they seem to say, is open-ended and free. There are no rules for creation and expression.

Standing outside the Vintage shop, entranced by the mannequins, Silvia Calderoni cries. Her relationship with the shop is inferably cathartic, her entrance thus symbolising the dawn of a new consciousness and relationship with clothes. The cinematography of Episode Six mimics a kaleidoscope, skewing the viewer’s perception and controlling their focus, consequently overwhelming their sensory intake. Instantly, we are placed on the same level as Silvia Calderoni: everything we see inspires an awareness of the beauty in creation.

The concept of perspective and seeing is emphasised through Silvia trying on Gucci glasses, all of which form Gucci’s new eyewear collection. As she tries each pair, characters around her rifle through clothes, searching with an eagerness mirroring that of a child playing a game. Fundamentally, this energy instills an excitement into the episode which makes the looks come alive. We see a character wearing a sky-blue midi skirt and embellished balloon-sleeved jumper change into a black sequined gown with elbow-length gloves and heart detailing. We see another character change from a red checked overcoat into a cream checked mid-lined coat with a similar patterned bucket hat. The transformation of the people, as they enter the changing room, speaks to the playfulness of fashion, and positions it as something to be enjoyed and challenged. 

Yet beyond this, Gucci once again aligns their fashion purely with fun and experimentation. As we watch each character revel in the shop’s possibilities, we are reminded that Gucci clothing is not static, regimental designs but a relationship between the designer and the wearer, between the creator and the creative. 

Dressed in a ruffled sleeve plissé dress with a flounced collar and a broad-brimmed hat, Florence Welch is the episode’s enchantress. As she explores the shop, slipping notes into people’s pockets, she exudes a mysterious aura. ‘With the rain comes secrets’; ‘Honey in the streets’; ‘Tomorrow could be different’: Florence’s surreal notes speak of a romantic alter-ego to ordinary life, inviting the reader to experiment with a new perspective. In this light, Gucci’s collection is perhaps also an invitation to this new perspective, a new life.

‘The Vintage Shop’ is Pandora’s box, brimming with treasures from Gucci’s past and present collections. The myriad of prints and colours and textures – and the subsequent amount of freedom – is overwhelming; the creative power of clothing is unquestionable. As Gucci invites us into their shop, we enter the playing ground of the designer. Clothes are not just items of clothing… Clothes are things to play with, experiment with, make your own. We must never forget that, Gucci seems to say.

Words by Hannah Emery, Graphics by Victoria Zhao

The post GucciFest Day – Day Six: ‘The Vintage Shop’ appeared first on Voir Fashion.