For Gucci Spring 2027, Demna Turns Shopping Into Fashion Spectacle
Demna has officially been at Gucci for one year, and his show this afternoon in Milan, in his own words, represents his “complete personal vision for the brand” for the first time. His Gucci is a house flirting with concepts of aristocracy, pop culture, and good and bad taste in equal measure. It’s a house that started in “respectability” and went on to embrace “eccentricity, danger, [and] sex appeal,” he writes. And for spring 2027, it’s a house that hosts Donatella Versace, Edward Norton, and Cardi B in The Store, a massive replica of a Gucci flagship built for the day’s ambitious runway show.
“My first year at Gucci was dedicated to understanding what Gucci stands for,” Demna wrote in the show notes. “The conclusion of my research is that Gucci stands for the desire to belong to a more glamorous world, and the audacity to remake that world in your own image.” That dogma was clear in the collection, which opened with 40 men’s looks. There was a series of slick, sexy suits that blended Miami Vice, Tom Ford–era Gucci, and a hint of the ever-cold irony that’s defined Demna’s point of view since he launched Vetements. The slim cuts, cropped trousers, and ’70s-style open shirting gave way to prep-coded offerings: a peacoat; a trenchcoat with miniature horseshoes on each collar end; and an extra-oversize black overcoat. Then Demna dove into archetypes, after which models walked in extra-large suits reminiscent of the radical tailoring Demna introduced first in 2014 with Vetements, then in 2016 when he took the helm at Balenciaga. The XL baby blue shirting and enlarged shoulder pads felt fresh yet again. The designer certainly feels more at home this season, with pieces that dip into the ironic without making a fool of the client.
The women’s looks began in the stables with riding garments that mimicked the men’s sexed-up country-club suiting. A black tuxedo dress with sharp exaggerated shoulders read part polish, part vamp. A series of kilts with enormous horseshoe belts was a highlight. The final evening looks pushed sensuality to its limits. View: Alex Consani in a slinky black number with a thigh slit almost reaching her hip and a full breast-to-hip cutout on the side. Quite a few older models walked the runway; the inclusion of mature women has been a trend in recent seasons, but this show stands out in its embrace of the demographic that does the purchasing. When Demna walked out to take his bow, he let slip a shy smile. It was a well-deserved grin.
