Leave it to Alessandro Michele to pull off a parade of epic proportions. Hosted on Los Angeles’ legendary Hollywood Boulevard and in tandem with the maison’s centennial anniversary, the Gucci Love Parade was a coming together of social change, celebrity and fashion. On Michele’s drawing board were materialisations of stories from his mother, who was once an assistant in a production company.
“Back then, we lived in a squat in the outskirts of Rome. I needed to be able to breathe. Those subversive tales helped me in piercing the grayness. That was my escape, my desertion. Down in that tiny speck in the world, Hollywood seemed a bright and shiny star. Nine letters dripping with desire,” he recounts in his press notes.
And desire and stardom were the very undertones of the evening. The audience—peppered with the likes of Billie Eilish, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lizzo, Diane Keaton and Kim Gordon—was an impossibly famous one; models were interspersed with Hollywood favourites such as Macaulay Culkin, Jodie Turner-Smith and Jared Leto; and hints at starlets long gone were speckled across looks.
Michele’s offerings were arguably as assorted as Tinseltown itself. He adds: “Here actors and actresses are acknowledged as heroes of the myth: hybrid creatures with the power to hold divine transcendence and mortal existence at the same time, both
the imaginary and the real.”
Show-stopping gowns accompanied by ornate stoles, cowboy boots and hats were paired with shiny gem-coloured blazers and leggings. Elbow-length leather lace-up gloves bookended slinky slip dresses. Skirts and jackets were plumed with neon-coloured feathers. Metallic chainmail headdresses and carpal-like nose rings sheered under the bright runway lights.
Beautiful pieces aside, the parade also comes with a cause. It brings with it the Gucci Changemakers programme, an initiative spearheaded by Gucci Equilibrium. It will extend donations to six non-profit organisations and spotlight and support homelessness, youth as well as mental health in Los Angeles.
As with every Gucci production under Michele’s wing: the Gucci Love Parade was glamorous, unexpected but also heart-warmingly meaningful.