Since its creation in 1921, Gucci has excelled at defining the ultra luxe and fashionable, jet setting Italian aesthetic to heights never reached by any other house. With such a reputation, wonders were expected from Frida Giannini (Gucci’s Creative Director) as she presented the brand’s men’s spring / summer 2013 collection yesterday at Milan fashion week (MFW). And wonders we got, in the form of a rocking combination of colours, simple styles and elegantly lined silhouettes.
Appointed head of accessory in 2004, then taking the top job in 2006 (replacing legendary designer Tom Ford), Rome-born Giannini described her creations as “bold, energetic, sharp”, allowing the Gucci man to “rediscover his chic Mediterranean side” in a rollicking mix of colour, print and clean-lined silhouettes.
To do so, she has used hot corals in every shade: raspberry, deep Mediterranean Sea blue and jade green as well as baby blue stripes and turquoise for a bit of coolness, tempered by Italian citrus hues of lemon yellow, tangerine as well as a gelato favourite: pistachio.
Model Clement Chabernaud opened the show in a leaf green suit and closed it in a silky matte black tux, and those two poles encompassed a “chromatic rush,” as the show notes so accurately described it. If the rush peaked in a blaze of crimson and orange (particularly a double-breasted jacket in raffia and a half-belted canvas coat that had the colour intensity that comes from overdyeing), it smoothed into a pleasurable buzz of blues that brought to mind a Mediterranean summer.
The trim jackets, the tapered, cuffed, slightly cropped pants, the knit polos, and the white worn with everything where a clear reminder of Gucci’s “dolce vitta” ideal, which clashes with one of Giannini’s earlier expeditions down the Via Veneto for Spring/Summer 2007.
Every look was grounded in the Florentine house’s iconic horse-bit loafers, celebrating their 60th birthday next year.
This season shows just how independent Giannini wants Gucci to become: as the majority of the menswear brands try to bend sportswear to the codes of a tailored silhouette, she sidelined sportswear to embrace a streamlined and refined style.
The collection is guaranteed to put anyone in a vacation state-of-mind, and would make Tom Ford, the old master, proud.
You can see all of the Gucci spring / summer 2013 runway collection by clicking on a thumbnail on the left. From there you can browse through each of the pictures from the fashion show.
Photography by Imaxtree