For Gucci Cruise 2023, Alessandro Michele casts one of his most fantastic love spells on the fashion industry. For one, the 101-look collection is titled Cosmogonie – a play on the term used to describe the study of theories about the origin of the world – and was revealed at a site that feels and looks like it could be the centre of the world: the remote hilltop citadel, Castel del Monte, in Apulia, Italy.
Then there’s its delightfully discordant panoply of themes hinting at magician Michele’s big message: Everyone’s a star, and there is no cosmos without us and the different galaxies we create. The result, suffice to say, is bewitching.
The Cosmogonie show was presented in a medieval citadel and castle, Castel del Monte, in southeastern Italy.
Take, for instance, the evening wear pieces. They feature heavily in Gucci’s Cosmogonie collection and, in true Michele fashion, is steeped in Hollywood glamour from an era – or should we say, eras – past. Silhouettes are long, robe-like and largely modest, then jazzed up with all-over sequin embroidery, bringing to mind show-stopping party looks from the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s and ’80s all at once
Other key themes in Gucci’s Cosmogonie collection include ’40s fashion; “light seduction” (elegant sheaths and swingy day dresses made come-hither with gossamer, see-through fabrics); “dark sensuality” (gothic get-ups with elements of kink); and an amped-up take on graphic geometric patterns and colours.
Alessandro Michele turned to influences from Victorian dress codes to '40s tailoring for the Cosmogonie collection.
Tying them all together are historical accents such as Victorian collars, armour-like chainmail hoods and headgear from across decades. Says Michele: “Fashion isn’t just a hieroglyph that only elites can understand. It’s about life. It speaks a multitude of idioms and is like a huge choir from which nobody has to be excluded. It’s like being at sea, in the ocean, and casting out someone or something is not being fair to the complexity of life.”
Scroll on to see how you can be a fashion star in pieces from the collection.
This article is adapted from a story that first appeared in the Dec 2022 Love Edition of FEMALE