Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele concretises the inextricable symbiosis between fashion and cinema in a new “Exquisite Gucci” film campaign. The project pays homage to legendary auteur Stanley Kubrick, his impressive filmography and his distinctive architectonic philosophical vision that always said something about everything and everyone.
Alessandro Michele is no stranger to placing Gucci and its captivating utopia onscreen. Thanks to the childhood stories of movie stars told by his mother, he repeatedly finds a connection between fashion and film. The designer not only dreams of the world of cinema but embodies it precisely in his collections and campaigns.
Charmed by the cinema
In Gucci’s latest campaign, Michele harnesses the power of storytelling to offer cinematography of the present. In the one-minute fashion film, photographic pair Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott channel the uncanny in a series of vignettes.
“I’ve always been charmed by cinema. For its power to tell stories that can probe human adventure and its drift,”
Michele says.
Replicating Magic
Staging some of Stanley Kubrick’s most notable film scenes, Michele replicates the magic of “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “A Clockwork Orange” (1971), “Barry Lyndon” (1975), “The Shining” (1980) and “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)with an idiosyncratic Gucci touch.
Runway looks from the Exquisite Gucci Fall/Winter 2022 collection are on show throughout. Models boast tailored suits slashed with stripes, statement earrings and studded mini bags. Replicas of original costume designs curated by Milena Canonero also feature. Her presence in the project is apparently, a “very precious gift.”
Charmed by Kubrick’s inimitable film practice and dedication to costuming, props and set design, Michele takes on the director whose drive extends beyond genre.
The campaign becomes a manifestation of Kubrick’s philosophies as Michele traverses the unknowns of life itself, questioning what it means to be alive. Thus, Michele’s attempts to magnify life and human experience parallel the ways Kubrick’s cinema does so seamlessly.
Signalling such force, Michele inhabits Kubrick’s film spaces whilst repurposing them. Well loved scenes and sets are now populated with Gucci clothing, in one scene we see the Adidas gown stripped of its 80s inspired sportswear status, staged as a new character in Barry Lyndon as a Victorian costume.
“I had the intention of placing the collection in Kubrick’s iconic scenes, where my clothes exist organically in his world, but feel completely alien at the same time – it’s my tribute to cinema and to one of its brightest maestros,”
says Michele.
Cross-genre Storytelling
Presenting a score of stories, the clothes bare a new life, telling stories of their own that shatter, enchant, torture and ignite. From the “venus in fur, embellished with sensual bourgeois pearls” fitting the mysterious ritual of “Eyes Wide Shut” to a dreamy “evening dress dangled in soft tulle ruches” which intercepts the dystopian set of the Discovery One in “2001: A Space Odyssey” Michele’s latest endeavour can only be understood as an obvious act of love.
Gucci’s version of “A Clockwork Orange” ensures that Alex and his droogs never go out of style. The hyper-stylised film set designs and furniture by John Barry are remodelled by Gideon Ponte as they flash before us. From the Korova Milk Bar, drinking milk plus to the contemporary architectural wonder of the Skybreak House.
Dedication comes through via subtlety. The splitting images of models resemble the actors of the films. It’s impossible to deny the uncanny likeness of a model’s distinctive Alex-glare, framed with a false eyelash. Or the Wendy Torrance lookalike, in a brown turtleneck and skirt with pleating.
Michele says in a press release,
“If you ask me, a garment is not, and never will be, just a piece of fabric. It’s rather the means through which we are able to unfold who we really decide to be, it’s how we shape our desires and the ultimate sense of our staying,”
Ultimately Michele reflects a metamorphic capability inherent to us all with this latest offering. Check out the full film below:
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