After the disruptions caused by Covid-19 in the last three years, fashion shows are returning to their pre-pandemic theatricality. Alessandro Michele at Gucci is among those designers who love a healthy dose of drama and, for the fashion house's show, that took place last week in Milan, he worked on the theme of twins.
Show notes read "Welcome to Twinsburg" and explained how the designer was inspired by his mother Eralda and her twin, Michele's late aunt Giuliana. As a child, he would call them both "mum" and get pampered by their double love. So a tribute was due, even though Michele has already explored the theme of the doppelgänger at the 2022 Met Gala where he and Jared Leto dressed identically (View this photo).
This time, though, Michele took things further deceiving the audience with a trick: divided in two separate rooms, the audience followed what looked like an ordinary runway show. It was only at the very end when a screen dividing the rooms was lifted and the sixty-eight pairs of real-life identical twins (cast at a twins convention in Twinsburg, Ohio) dressed in identical looks, were revealed.
The twins emerged from opposites sides, joined hands and walked again down the runway, while on the evocative soundtrack Marianne Faithfull's voice commented, "Two totally, totally utterly, utterly opposite, opposite totally, totally different...we look a lot alike but we are not alike".
Diversity was high on the agenda, and clothes were almost secondary. By now we all know that Alessandro Michele favours a high dose of eccentric maximalism, possibly filtered through the lens of the late '70s (see the paisley quilted jackets, floral dresses and wide-leg pants) and the early '80s (the bright coloured fez hats and the hints at Krizia's pleated metallic designs) and with some heavy twists of Hollywood glamour sprinkled on top.
As you may guess, there was a bit of everything, from sequined gowns and jackets, to men's garter pants that highlighted bare upper thighs matched with double-breasted blazers, and wrench, bolt and lipstick prints maybe hinting at the tools to transform yourself and create a new identity.
Somewhere among the evening dresses there was a new reinterpretation of Adrian's Tigress gown, plus plenty of Oriental inspirations with embroidered silk capes, qipao dresses and cheongsam apron tops.
Some of these looks were matched with gloves covered in heavy fringes of black pearls that guaranteed very theatrical effects when they hemorrhaged from the arm slits of a vast cape (well, actually two capes).
Accessories included shoulder-duster earrings, sunglasses with chains that covered the face and bags that incorporated a very cute Gizmo, from Joe Dante's 1984 "Gremlins" film.
In some cases Gizmo was seen hanging from a belt, in others peeking out from a pocket on a tote bag or carried inside a furry bag. Gizmo, who was also digitally printed on a royal blue dress, was again a reference to human nature: we as human beings can be cute and adorable, but we can also turn into violent monsters that, like Gremlins, can quickly multiply (by the way, while this runway collaboration with Warner Bros. was authorised, it remains to be seen whether there will be "Gucci Gremlins" come next season…).
Gizmo allowed Michele to speak about otherness, a theme embodied by a sequined orange jacket and denim overalls announcing "FUORI!!!".
Literally this word means "out", but in this case it was a reference to the F.U.O.R.I. the "Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano" (Italian Revolutionary Homosexual Unitary Front), the first Italian gay movement, based in Turin, and to its eponymous radical monthly magazine.
The movement and the magazine started as a reaction to an article published in 1971 on Italian newspaper La Stampa, written by psychologist, Andrea Romeo, head neurologist at a hospital in Turin. In the article, Romeo wrote about the unhappiness of homosexuals and the remedies to cure what many at the time considered an illness.
The first issue of the magazine (Issue 0) came out in 1971 and featured on its cover a picture of the American Gay Liberation Front by Peter Hujar.
Little by little, the magazine, first distributed only in the streets were gay people would meet, reached newsagents and independent libraries, becoming well known for its witty, sharp and ironic contents and features written by a variety of contributors that included poet and songwriter Alfredo Cohen (who honoured in his "Valery", transsexual Valérie Taccarelli), Fernanda Pivano, Corrado Levi, Mario Mieli, and Maria Silvia Spolato.
The magazine folded in 1982, but the golden ages of the united front went between 1971 and 1974. Peter Boom's first openly gay Italian track, the 7" single "Fuori!" (1972) was also a reference to the movement.
The "Fuori!!!" garments in the collection were actually a bit lazy as, rather than featuring original artwork from the actual magazine, the bright orange of the jackets was lifted from the cover of a book - "FUORI!!! 1971-1974" (Nero Editions) - published last year, that featured selected issues of the magazine. Shame there wasn't space also for a "Fuori! Donna" design, that may have acted as a reference to the 13th issue of the magazine edited and written by the movements' lesbians.
At the end of the show Michele came out with a T-shirt with a bomb (an image from page two of the December 1971 issue of the magazine, but also the cover of last year's book), but, like for the Gizmo bags, it remains to be seen if, come next season, there will be Gucci shirts celebrating the "Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano" (mind you, it would be slightly unethical to do luxury shirts celebrating an independent movement…).
Rather than to rediscover this partially forgotten Italian radical movement, the "Fuori!!!" reference was a way to remind people about freedom and human rights not just in Italy (where the far right won Sunday's elections), but all over the world.
"Fuori" often featured readers' letters and, in the December 1971 issue, they published a letter written by a 19-year-old student stating: "I attend my senior year of high school, I'm surrounded by young people who read left wing magazines and who are revolutionary. I was hoping to meet some understanding, but I'm not. Sometimes, I have to scream in the halls because this is unbearable. I'm disgusted with the society I have to live in. Why does it not recognize me for what I am, why does it not allow me to exist?" More than 50 years after that letter, there are still people wondering the same question of that young student and while clothes and accessories can't provide an answer, maybe we can still use them to open debates.
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