The designer everybody was talking about: Alessandro Michele

He is controversial, but loved. He made the Gucci house lovable for the new generation. And now he left, after 20 years in the backstage of the Gucci house and we are eager to see how Valentino dresses are going to look under the spell of Alessandro Michele.

1. The rumour…

… had it that the designer will leave the Gucci brand for a new adventure took us by surprise. In November 2022, Gucci announced that Michele was set to leave the company. “The road that Gucci and Alessandro walked together over the past years is unique and will remain as an outstanding moment in the history of the house”, said Kering chief François-Henri Pinault. “His passion, his imagination, his ingenuity and his culture put Gucci centre stage.” In March 2024, Valentino announced Michele was set to take the helm as creative director. In the statement released to Vogue Business, Michele said: “I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a Maison de Couture that has the word ‘beauty’ carved on a collective story made of distinctive elegance, refinement, and extreme grace.”

To remember: The designer’s first show for the brand Valentino will take place during Paris Fashion Week in September this year. 

2. The plot… 

… of the history of a long relationship Gucci & Michele appeared in that moment when an Italian house, with a beautiful and interesting heritage, but… a little too much “for adults” gained the attention of the younger generation. Known for his maximalist designs, Alessandro Michele revived Gucci’s popularity, most notably with a Geek-Chic aesthetic, nonconformist, romantic, intellectual.

But Alessandro Michele didn’t appear from nowhere in the Gucci playground. In 2002, Tom Ford (yes, that Tom Ford who made Gucci brand to be the definition of sexiness and glamour, the creative director of the brand between 1994-2004) invited Alessandro Michele to work at the firm’s London-based design office. Than, Michele was named senior designer at Gucci leather goods and, in 2011, he was promoted associate creative director to Frida Giannini, who was in charge after Tom Ford left the house. And that was the point from where, for the last years, the Gucci brand had a maximalist, quirky and glamorous aesthetic, signed Alessandro Michele. 

To remember: the image of Alessandro Micheles’s friend and Gucci brand ambassador, Jared Leto, in a Gucci look (head under the arm included) for the 2019 Camp-themed Met Gala. And the two of them wearing a twinning look Gucci to the 2022 Met Gala “In America: An Anthology Of Fashion”. 

3. The peaks… 

* A week before Gucci’s Fall/Winter 2015 men’s collection took the runway at Milan Fashion Week, then-creative director Frida Giannini left the label. Michele stepped into the role very quick. The first look of the collection revealed a whimsical pussy bow blouse paired with black trousers and a Gucci belt, now an icon image for the brand aesthetic. In March 2017, the house reported an “exceptional financial performance across the board”, according to BoF. 

* For Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2018, the designer has infused many Renaissance-inspired elements into his designs and the overall visual identity of the luxury label. 
Combining fine art and high fashion, the campaign presented interpretations of classic paintings with the subjects dressed in the latest Gucci collection. Michele asked the artist Ignasi Monreal to create the campaign’s hallucination-like artwork that merges the physical and the imagined.

* In the Fall/Winter 2018 season, Gucci’s severed heads stole the spotlight. Taking six months to make, the models have carried life-sized identical human head replicas down the runway for the fantastical cyborg-themed show that also included horns baby dragons, iguanas. 

* Gucci’s first fine jewellery collection – Hortus Deliciarum – was designed by Michele and launched in 2019. French Vogue introduced it as: “Featuring themes dear to Alessandro Michele, such as love, the animal kingdom, and luxury. The collection echoes the Italian designer’s vibrant and poetic mind, a driving force behind his creative genius.”

* For Fall/Winter 2020 – In addition to individual looks, Michele was loved for his imaginative vision, which was reflected through his runway shows. Breaking away from the traditional catwalk, the creative director built a rotating theatre for FW20, where spectators had a full view of the show, including models getting their hair and makeup done.

* In May 2020, after months of lockdown, Michele announced a decrease in runway showings for the Italian label, going from five presentations a year to two, and putting an end to separate collections for men and women.

* In 2021, the Gucci and Balenciaga “Hacker Project” marked a historical moment for the Kering group. The two brands, which had never collaborated before, came together to create co-branded items to celebrate the Italian label’s 100th anniversary. “Aria” – the collection featured Balenciaga’s logos laid atop Gucci’s iconic GG monogram, while the same signature pattern took over the Hourglass bag.

* Gucci’s now-iconic Guccididas collaboration with sport brand adidas in 2022 was a cultural crossover for the ages. The sportswear label’s three stripe motif was fused with Gucci’s signature accessories, apparel and footwear designs, and Gucci took their branding to the sneaker-of-the-moment, the adidas Samba.

* For Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2023 show, Michele highlighted the beauty of twins by sending sets of identical twins down the runway in the same outfit.

* Michele has made sustainability a priority for the Kering-owned luxury label. The designer began by eliminating the use of fur in 2017. In the fall of 2019, the brand announced that by its Spring/Summer 2020 runway show in Milan, its events (from the construction to the invitations) would be carbon neutral, drastically reducing the brand’s footprint. In 2023, the Italian label launched its first eco-friendly collection, Off The Grid using organic, recycled, and bio-based materials, along with a virtual campaign starring Jane Fonda, Lil Nas X, and more.

To remember: fur-lined loafers; the iconic puffy shoulders of the 1980s, mixed with Renaissance corsets; 1970s hemlines paired with lavalliere shirts; clogs and lamé disco sandals; diamond-studded sunglasses; streetwear accessories that look like jewelry; bright socks and lace gloves; monochromatic looks.

4. The background…

… In the early 1990s, Alessandro Michele completed his studies of fashion design at the Accademia di Costume e di Moda in Rome, where he learned to design both theatrical costumes and fashion wear. Worked for Les Copains, an Italian knitwear firm based in Bologna, then for Fendi.

He received a British Fashion Council International Fashion Designer of the Year Award in 2015. And the following year he received GQ’s Men of the Year Award for Best Designer. While in 2017 he was included in Time’s 100 Most Influential People.

To remember: the Gucci Stories – Ouverture of Something that Never Ended – a seven-episode miniseries co-directed by Michele and American filmmaker Gus Van Sant, featuring Italian star Silvia Calderoni, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Florence Welch. The episodes successfully capture the overall Gucci ethos and aesthetic from bohemian interiors and eclectically curated ensembles.

5. The future…

… of the magic made by the designer Alessandro Michele will be seen in the coming Valentino collection. Until then… “Fashion is a magical thing, because the power of what we put on our bodies to go out in the world is what makes it mysterious”, Alessandro Michele told The Guardian in 2022. “Without the life we live in them, clothes are just fabric.”  

Photo: Instagram pages of the brand.