Gucci Menswear F/W 2024.25 Milan

[Cocteau Stone]

It's not bad but for f*cks sake, can we just get a touch of actual passion into these clothes.

There's something so gormless about this it is a bit frightening. From a merchandise perspective, it does the job very, very well so kudos to Sabato, the master contrarian. It just has no personality or identity to it. Nothing going on between the eyes, no breath being taken. Goes beyond fodder into some strange Brave New World kind of system.

 

[Phuel]

Michele was let go for missing their €10bn goal by 300m?! I would've thought that he missed by €1-2bn with the whole year of drama and executive uprooting from Gucci and Kering. Honestly, Michele did very well considering that it's already difficult to pass €2-3bn on mostly ready-to-wear and bags (additional cheers to Vaccarello and Belletini).

As you said, achieving numbers like €10-15bn+ depend heavily on perishable, mass-reaching, high-volume products: eyewear, beauty, fragrances.

The issue here is that Kering has a very weak presence in the beauty and fragrance sectors, mostly because of poor management. Gucci Beauty will probably need to be fully redesigned and rebranded under Sabato's nonexistent vision. Saint Laurent could be easily outpaced by Celine adding a beauty division. The other houses' fragrance lines were all discontinued in the mid 10s.

I feel that the "success" of PPP's Valentino is most likely an illusion manufactured by the industry and press out of spite towards MGC at Dior. Mayhoola probably decided to play along by pushing PPP to produce these very loud saccharine collections, which was the opposite to MGC's very conservative approach.

In truth, I think that pushing so hard in that direction may have weakened their commercial strengths, especially since PPP wasn't able to produce another cash cow to back up his vision. As of late, they've been trying to go back to a more classical Valentino in attempts to win back their customers.

The relentless pressure to produce fashions that will hit the multi-billion profit projection must be insanely crippling, soul-draining in every way to a CD employed by these greedy corporations: You'd have to design in terms of fastfashion appeal that's accessible to the masses, and on a global level— and still maintain enough distinction from fastfashion to lure the witless consumer into paying the ridiculous pricepoints. It’s no wonder the trappings of logo/monogram/tricksies is so easily enticing for both creatives and consumer. And it’s why I loathe the ilks of Daniel Lee and JW Anderson above all the other lessers: Just nonstop gimmicks. Sabato may come across an obnoxious personality (and I don’t find what he’s said obnoxious, frankly. I find the cherry-red Docs he wore more obnoxious for someone who’s the CD of Gucci coming out for his runway bow.), but at least this collection doesn’t resemble clownwear/childrenswear/outlet merch… It’s the same reason I can get behind someone like Maria Grazia and her Dior; not a whiff of clownwear/childrenswear/outlet merch. Both Maria Grazia and Sabato are nowhere in the league of The Greats of course— but we’re not in 1999 anymore. And except for the last man standing Galliano (who seems to have the rare privilege of being allowed to have a very intainted high fashion creative vision at Margiela), there are no Greats working anymore in 2024. This the era of The Mediocrity. And Sabato is--at least… above mediocrity. Just take a gander at the slop JW is serving as menswear— or Raf’s infection on Prada with their menswear right next door. Suddenly, Sabato is a fashion godsend LMFAO

 

[RaisinBoy]

Alastair McKinn. He also styles Marc Jacobs and Bottega Veneta.

No wonder it’s looking dull.

 

[Thefrenchy]

My "favorite" (hysterical) thing about him is the audacity he has to pride himself in producing boring collections. At least, he's not pretending to reinvent the wheel, I guess. Therefore, the bar is literally buried underground, when it comes to his Gucci.

It's just a pity to see that, someone who would have all the possibilities in the world (due to Kering's financial support) to push the envelope and lead the brand somewhere, chooses (or was pushed to when signing his contract?) to put creativity on hold.