Gucci Spring Summer 2027: Demna Sparks Our Desire To Shop

Demna has finally figured it out. We’re talking about his vision for Gucci, where he was appointed as creative director a year ago, after a decade of disrupting fashion at the helm of Balenciaga. Although he has already created four collections for the Italian luxury house, Demna says that Gucci’s Spring Summer 2027 show, unveiled at Milan Fashion Week, is “the first collection in which I present my complete personal vision for the brand”. 

“My first year at Gucci was dedicated to understanding and formulating what Gucci stands for,” shares Demna in his show notes. He had his work cut out for him: after all, the Italian brand has been around for over 100 years, during which time it was transformed from a leather goods company into a global fashion powerhouse, and shaped by a string of designers as different as Tom Ford and Alessandro Michele. What did Demna make of it all?

“The conclusion of my research is that Gucci stands for being rooted in the desire to belong to a more glamorous world, and in the audacity to remake that world in your own image,” he says. 

With his third Gucci runway show, titled The Store Show, Demna creates his own world of glamour – and invites us in. Find out more below.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM GUCCI’S SPRING SUMMER 2027 SHOW AT MILAN FASHION WEEK

Retail therapy

As its name suggests, Gucci’s Spring Summer 2027 show was centred on the experience of shopping. The show space, composed of marble walls and bas-relief plaques, teased the new look of Gucci’s stores that will soon be unveiled in its retail spaces around the world. The show’s models, meanwhile, played the role of shoppers; some lingered to look at a display case of Gucci goods. Demna envisions the Gucci store as a third space, comparing it to The Savoy Hotel in London, where founder Guccio Gucci worked as bellboy and saw all sorts of characters: “aristocrats, artists, creatives and people from entirely different worlds”. He adds, “I want Gucci to embody that same spirit today: a place where those who may appear to have nothing in common can meet, connect and inspire one another.”

Gucci Gang

What kind of people would you encounter at a Gucci store? The cast of the Spring Summer 2027 show offered some clues: pretty blondes like Princess Olympia of Greece, who donned a tweed set and pearls; chic older women, embodied by the Spanish socialite Naty Abascal in sunglasses and a trench coat; swaggering boys in Web-striped polo shirts with popped collars, flared jeans and Gucci belts; and corporate bros in suits, rebelliously styled with flashy Cuban link chains and moody eyeshadow. (Demna would probably be for bringing iced coffee to your job interview.) The diversity of the Gucci-verse was reflected on the front row. Celebrity guests included singer Shawn Mendes, Fight Club star Edward Norton, Thai actor PP Krit, ‘70s style icon Bianca Jagger (who wore a white suit much like her famous wedding ensemble), and Cardi B, who came in a big furry coat only outmatched by the one worn by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley on the runway.

Power moves

Demna loves a suit. At Balenciaga, he famously favoured an oversized silhouette, but he showed some restraint in his opening menswear looks for Gucci: lean, lithe models stalked the runway in slim black suits and sexy open shirts, echoing Tom Ford’s early Gucci shows. Because this is Demna we’re talking about, the tailoring still bore some irreverent touches: the men wore cropped pants, angular square-toed loafers, and no socks. “[Gucci] begins with polished bourgeois respectability, but its most memorable periods introduce eccentricity, danger or sex appeal into that respectable world,” explains Demna.

Horsing around

Demna didn’t overload his collection with Gucci logos – the brand’s monogram mostly peeked out from the lining of jackets – but he instead played around with the brand’s equestrian codes. Gucci’s Horsebit was unexpectedly placed on the lapels of a preppy women’s jacket, or atop the pockets of men’s shirts. The hardware was even blown up to create statement belts, slung low around the hips. Horsehair, meanwhile, appeared as fringing on some of the women’s looks, and as an eccentric tassel detail on men’s shoes, swishing flamboyantly with each step. Will those shoes spark a frenzy like Michele’s fur-lined Gucci loafers did 10 years ago?

Sex sells

Like we saw at Prada and Fendi, the models at the Gucci presentation dialed up the sex appeal in looks that could have been pulled from Tom Ford’s much-moodboarded Gucci Spring Summer 1997 collection. Models like Alex Consani and Candice Swanepoel emerged in slinky gowns and glittering bodycon dresses with thigh-high slits and midriff cutouts that confirmed: there were no Gucci thongs underneath. “Gucci is about luxury that wants to be seen,” says Demna. “It is about the tension between propriety and sensuality.”