Gucci proved that you never know what to expect during Fashion Week.
Before models even stepped foot on the runway, the audience knew they were in for something out of the ordinary. Gucci’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, had reconstructed the show space to resemble a hospital.
The show space included plastic chairs lined around the runway – similar to those of a waiting room, an operating table in the center, and LED lights to set the scene. Many people were left pondering what this all even meant. Gucci penned a brief explanation prior to the start of the show.
From then, things got a little weird, very quickly.
While the audience may have been expecting the operating room theme to be carried over into pieces on the runway, what they got was unlike anything they could have predicted.
One model donned centaur horns, another clutched a baby dragon, and another sported a third eye on her forehead.
But what really stole the show were the models who carried insanely realistic severed versions of their own head. The 3-D prints of the heads took an entire 6 months to create.
The inspiration for the fashion feat was Donna Haraway’s 1984 essay, “Cyborg Manifesto.” Gucci focused in on one of her concepts, “the dualism and dichotomy of identity.”
If anyone was left confused by the looks, the show notes provided the explanation they probably were looking for.
“Gucci Cyborg is post-human … It’s a biologically indefinite and culturally aware creature. The last and extreme sign of a mongrel identity under constant transformation.” So case in point, all the fantasy elements were not random pieces thrown together – they all served a thought-provoking meaning.
Whatever your thoughts on the eccentric show, one cannot deny that Gucci pushes the envelope and turns heads in the process.