Hot pants and grandma cardigans, animal-eared beanies and bow ties, and lace-up leather gloves with shield sunglasses.
Gucci shut down Hollywood Boulevard on Tuesday, Nov. 2, so Alessandro Michele could use the Walk of Fame as a runway for his Love Parade. If you know the fashion world, particularly the Milan-based fashion house and its ability to create a spectacle (and now only twice a year), this may not seem so far-fetched or out of the ordinary, but the celebrity influence was pulsating. Jared Leto, Macaulay Culkin, Jodie Turner-Smith, St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers, Steve Lacy, and Miranda July were just some of the famous faces cast in the show, while the Wade family, Miley Cyrus, Lizzo, Tracee Ellis Ross, Dakota Johnson, Vanessa and Natalia Bryant, EJ and Cookie Johnson, and Gwyneth Paltrow, in a replica of her famous red pantsuit from the ’90s, sat front row. The El Capitan Theatre lit up warmly above the audience, striking the mood and setting the scene so that it could only be described as comparable to a movie set – at least, according to Ellis Ross.
“Mum worked in the film industry as an assistant in a production company. I remember all the stories she told me, and the details and the sparkles, about that dream factory,” Michele began his show notes. He wanted to pay ode to Hollywood – “nine letters dripping with desire” – and the idols he has met in Los Angeles, some real and some imaginary. The collection itself included over 100 looks worn by famed supermodels, including Quannah Chasinghorse and Tess McMillan, marking the first time Gucci has included plus-size models on the runway, which is long overdue.
Feathers, furry stoles, satin, and floor-sweeping, sequin-speckled trains were met with logofied leggings, nipple pasties, ombré chain mail, fishnets, cutout corsets, and tropical prints to marry our old ideas of classical glamour with the edgy and redefined. Meanwhile, western flair was prominent in the form of cowboy hats and boots, and Michele’s own signature brand of quirk could be felt through the off combinations of hot pants and grandma cardigans, animal-eared beanies and bow ties, and lace-up leather gloves with shield sunglasses. Ahead, take in the A-list atmosphere and watch the cinematic show; you won’t miss a beat from the entire evening.
