BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Milano Moda Uomo FW '23-'24

Milano Moda Uomo has wrapped up and the attention now turns to Paris. But before that, there were a few miscellaneous details at Milano Moda Uomo that caught my eye...

...Gucci showed skirts...and not the Thom Browne men's suiting skirt or the let's-pretend-this-kilt-is-a-skirt-so-we-can-still-pretend-to-be-masculine-and-not-wear-women's-clothes type of skirt. No, eff it. It's a long floor length skirt. And the cut is fantastic. Also in the collection: a 70s-80s retro flashback to leg warmers!

Here are some more long skirts at Etro. I must say that I miss Kean Etro (the son of the house's founder stepped down in 2022 and his last collection can be seen here)...aside from the skirts, this collection was fairly lackluster.

I am not sure how practical they are from a functional point of view (what if you have to kneel down to get a dropped iPhone?), but Alyx showed pants with spiked knees...

And finally, how awesome are these clever and unique metallic loafers with claws at the toe area from Charles Jeffrey? They make me giggle...

https://www.gucci.com/
https://www.etro.com/
https://www.alyxstudio.com/
https://charlesjeffreyloverboy.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Gucci

The last time I posted a Gucci show was their performance art presentation in an operating room, here. I like what Alessandro Michele has done for and at Gucci (its second revival after Tom Ford rescued it once before in the 90s), but...well, I don't know why I don't post about their shows more often. It's not that I don't like what he creates...it just feels, I don't know, more of the same. But I hasten to add "the same" is interesting.

So this Fall-Winter '22-'23 collection at Milan Fashion Week feels like it covers familiar territory even though the house collaborated with sportswear brand Adidas to incorporate the classic trefoil, three-stripe design on suits, capes, and shirts. Regular readers  know I am not a fan of the whole "athleisure wear" trend, so it is not the Adidas logo per se that interests me but the juxtaposition of the sport logo onto double breasted suits that is fun. I like the incongruity of it.

The first many collections Michele created for Gucci looked like French gender-fluid teens raided the closets and storage trunks of their grandparents and came out wearing a crazy patchwork mix of 70s and 80s fashion, a look that Michele himself has refered to as "attic chic." While this collection might still have a bit of that sense, it feels like it hangs together a bit more. But don't misunderstand: there is a wide variety of silhouettes here from tight, pegged trousers (some in leather!) to voluminous trailing trousers to culottes. Above it all stands the suit, well tailored, and presented in track suit colors, corduroy, or Punk-styled with studs and spikes. And it is nice to see that Michele is still a champion of prints that look as if they came off  a British sofa from 1975 (looks 24 and 35 among others)...and it is delightful. Note: Gucci is dedicated fur-free so the trim you see on coats, capes, and suits is faux. Thank you Gucci, for your commitment to a fur-free product.

https://www.gucci.com/

"Somethinggreater" by Parcels

Parcels (previously here) bring us more smooth jazzy funk with "Somethinggreater"--and they are all dressed in Gucci! From their new release "Day/Night" available November 5, 2021.

And Noah Hill with those earrings and that hair...*sigh*

https://www.parcelsmusic.com/

Gucci's Cyborg Operating Room

Regular readers know that I always cover the men's fashion season every winter and summer, starting with London Fashion Week, going down to Italy, and then ending in Paris. But I just have to share the recent Gucci runway show at Milan Fashion Week for women (which showed looks for men as well, something more and more designers are doing...and I have mixed feelings about combining the men's and women's shows, but that is for another post). Designer Alessandro Michele has been at the creative helm of Gucci since 2015 and has taken the luxury brand in a totally different, eclectic, quite quirky direction. Collections look like gender-fluid teens raided the closets of grandparents and came out with a crazy patchwork mix of 70s and 80s fashion, with some global influences thrown in for good measure--a look that Michele calls "attic chic." "Gucci has revolutionised its identity," says Justin O’Shea (previously here), buying director for e-commerce fashion brand MyTheresa. "It sounds easy saying it, but to actually achieve this is one of the most remarkable fashion moments in history. And the best part about it is that it was done with beauty and innocent, unbridled conviction."

But for the most recent Gucci Fall-Winter 2018 show, Michele worked with the ideas of post-humanism, trans-humanism, fantasy, and hybridisation. The show was set in a sterile and well-lit operating theater, a metaphor for how people today construct their identities—a population undergoing self-regeneration through the powers of tech, Hollywood, Instagram, and Gucci. "We are the Dr. Frankenstein of our lives," said Michele. "There’s a clinical clarity about what I am doing. I was thinking of a space that represents the creative act. I wanted to represent the lab I have in my head. It’s physical work, like a surgeon’s."

For this collection titled "Cyborg" (Michele says the reference had been taken from his reading of the feminist philosopher Donna Haraway’s 1984 "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century"), models walked down the runway with exotic animals like snakes, and geckos...as well as a mythical baby dragon. Other models carried frighteningly realistic replicas of their own heads and one had a literal third eye on her forehead. These special effects were made and implemented by Makinarium, a Rome-based visual effects factory that has created effects for the likes of film directors Ridley Scott and Danny Boyle.

https://www.gucci.com

BEAUTY: Clothing--Gucci

Since Alessandro Michele took over as Creative Director at Gucci in January 2015, he turned the steering wheel of the house in a totally new and shocking direction. Despite the fact that he has worked for Gucci since 2002, hired by Tom Ford and then later serving as assistant to former Creative Director Frida Giannini, he broke with the aesthetic lineage of the house which was a kind of louche, 70s, jet-set, Studio 54 sort of luxury: sleek, sexual, yet based on tradition. One wonders if Michele had been planning his stylistic 180 the whole time. What on earth possessed him to dump the cocaine/private jet/Paris-New York vibe for an arty, loose, bohemian, gender-bending look with frilly collars, pussy bow blouses, and three-quarter length sleeves for men? His collections still reference the 70s so there is that. He has said, "The ’70s is the most powerful image, for me, for the brand," but whose 70s...which 70s?

Michele's previous FW '16-'17 collection was shown in a space completely wrapped in crimson, somehow a fitting color for a fall-winter collection. So for his Spring-Summer '17 collection just shown at Milano Moda Uomo, the show space was drenched in emerald green, which feels like an equally fitting color: a saturated, rich, jewel tone for a saturated, ornate collection. While Michele cited the 13th-century travelogue of Marco Polo, IL MILIONE as a reference for this collection, we have seen his penchant for Chinoiserie in other collections. But Marco Polo creeps into SS '17 with references to the ocean and sea travel. Witness prints based on Renaissance depictions of sea creatures and underwater animals (which brings to mind this SS '16 McQueen collection, previously here) along with sailor touches like the white and blue striped nautical shirt, and takes on the classic Greek fisherman cap and the French sailor cap.

The 70s were present in other Alessandro Michele collections, not only with color, style, and silhouette but with the inclusion of cartoon characters like Snoopy and Woodstock from "The Peanuts," previously seen here. For this collection, Michele incongruously incorporated Donald Duck into his lush Asian brocades (see him peeking out from rural Chinese landscapes or sharing shoulder space with a dragon), embroidered on evening jackets, and coupled with a lobster on loafers.

Shoes. Amazing.
Here is the aforementioned lobster/Donald Duck loafer, along with a fantastic Greek-style sandal whose sole is in the shape of a fish. Sequined appliqués of snakes and tiger heads look marvelous on silk and velvet slippers. And of course I love the studded t-strap sandals in plastic jelly and red, white, and blue leather.

https://www.gucci.com

BEAUTY: Clothing--Gucci

When Alessandro Michele took over as Creative Director at Gucci in January 2015, he turned the steering wheel of the house in a totally new and shocking direction. Despite the fact that he has worked for Gucci since 2002, hired by Tom Ford and then later serving as assistant to former Creative Director Frida Giannini, he broke with the aesthetic lineage of the house which was a kind of louche, 70s, jet-set, Studio 54 sort of luxury: sleek, sexual, yet based on tradition. One wonders if Michele had been planning his stylistic 180 the whole time. What on earth possessed him to dump the cocaine-private jet-Paris-New York vibe for an arty, loose, gender-bending collection (seen first here ) and then an eclectic, bohemian (and still quite feminine) collection (here)? Both collections still referenced the 70s so there is that...but still. He did however say, "The ’70s is the most powerful image, for me, for the brand," but whose 70s...which 70s?

So for his Gucci FW '16-'17 collection at Milano Moda Uomo, he is still wandering through a style decade that he is barely old enough to remember (he was born in 1972 in Rome). Images of Snoopy and Woodstock on tee-shirts peek out from under 70s mod patterned jackets (for those of us who do remember, The Peanuts were certainly up there in terms of pop culture icons, no mistake). And we still have some pieces that look as if they came from the closet of a French grandmother in 1974 (ya gotta love the red crocheted poncho over a plaid trench coat). But instead of the pussy bow blouses and lacey tops, Michele has injected a bit of world style into this collection with Asian motifs...the lucky Chinese dragon rears up on coats, jackets, hats, and day pajamas (which have been cropping up in many designer's collections this season). It seems that he set the house on course for a different direction last year, and now with that settled he can play with variations on a theme...he seems pretty fearless so far so it will be interesting to see where he takes the brand.

http://www.gucci.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Gucci

Alessandro Michele’s Spring Summer '16 showing at Milano Moda Uomo is his first real full collection for Gucci and is an extension of the Fall Winter 2015 collection he created as head accessories designer, right after Frida Giannini's early and sudden departure as creative director. What he showed last time was a primer for what looks to be the new paradigm for the house.

Looking like a survey of a French grandmother's wardrobe from the 1970s, the look is surely to push buttons for most men since it is so feminizing. Pussy bow blouses will be a hard sell. But my guess is that all the lace and extensive floral embroidery is not so far fetched. The motorcycle jacket in baby blue is a great cross between masculine and feminine with metal studs and embroidered flowers and bees. And classic Gucci trench coats with very 1970s cuts of a chevron pattern and patchwork leather are wonderful.

But what does it mean for a man to wear clothing that is perceived as feminine? Why is it such a taboo and why does it inspire such discomfort or outright hostility and fear in men?

This kind of gender perception is an important conversation to have since it absolutely has everything to do with the issues of homophobia and misogyny, twin symptoms that come from the same disease: the fear of appearing feminine. I am thinking of these succinct lines from the 1993 film "The Cement Garden": "Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots, because it's OK to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading." This quote sums it all up. So, as a gay man, I do not think that being a woman is degrading as many heterosexual men do, whether consciously or not. And let me say for the record that I am personally not afraid to wear feminizing clothing since I am not afraid to appear feminine (while I have never done drag, I suffer no homophobia nor misogyny). But the unfortunate fact remains that women are still so mistreated in general, and for a man to appear to be feminine would invite the same kind of abuse and scorn that women receive in subtle and not-so-subtle ways every day.

Having said that, the kind of man--whether gay or straight--who would be interested in wearing fashion-forward designs such as these would probably be secure enough in his own sense of self not to be concerned with such matters. Gender is a context.

The shoes accompanying this collection are pretty amazing--I would expect nothing less from a man who was the head of accessories for the house! The metallic woven loafers in gold and red, the lace ups in various patterns, the brocaded slippers, the sparkly silver sneakers with the iconic Gucci stripe, and the minimalist slippers with metal spikes are at once harmonious with and contrasting with the sense of the collection.

http://www.gucci.com/