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For their initial conversation about the future of Gucci, Bizzarri visited Michele in the apartment that Michele shares with Giovanni Attili. It is a tiny, obsessively curated space at the top of a building that overlooks a square not far from the Palazzo Alberini. The front door opens into a small wood-panelled library that feels like a Renaissance studiolo. The living-room floorboards are laid in a herringbone pattern; a marble fireplace has a mantel decorated with taxidermied birds, a gilt clock, an ornate porcelain candlestick, and other objects from Michele’s antique-store forays. A wall behind a couch is hung with dozens of objects: a pair of Baroque angels in plaster, mounted sets of antlers. An antique cradle from India sits under the window—it serves as a bed for Michele’s two pugs. In a narrow dining room, a farmhouse table stands under an enormous gilt mirror from the early nineteenth century; when I went to the apartment, Michele told me that the mirror had been deaccessioned from the Palazzo Pamphili, which was built for Pope Innocent X. In Michele’s bedroom, concealed behind panelled doors, is a large walk-in closet—the kind of place a child might explore if he or she wanted to escape Narnia, rather than clamber into it. Michele has two nephews, who, he said, are scared of a lot of things in the apartment—an animal skull sits atop a dresser—though they are also helplessly fascinated. “If you think about art, art is about being made a little bit uncomfortable,” he said. “When you are a kid, you always want to be in touch with something that makes you feel not comfortable. I have a machine from the seventeen-hundreds to make curly hair. You put the tip of it in the fire, and you can travel with it. It is very like a torture object. But when my nephews arrive at my apartment, they say, ‘Please, can we see the machine to make curly hair?’ There is something about discovering different things— things that make you feel curious and uncomfortable—that is very human.” June 2nd was the sixty-third anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. That day, at noon, bells from the northwest tower pealed for half an hour to mark the occasion. They resounded in the cloister below, where hundreds of Gucci staff and hired hands were readying the site for the fashion show, which was to take place at three. It was an unseasonably cold day, and a square of leaden sky loomed above the lush green lawn, edged by four Gothic passageways, through which the models were to parade. Two rows of benches had been set up for guests: no fashion critic would have to perch on the chilly stone perimeter that had served generations of monks. Each seat was marked by an emerald velvet cushion that had been embroidered with a snake, a monkey, or a bee from the Gucci Garden. Michele was bundled against the cold in an off-white biker jacket covered in metal studs and embroidered with a cat’s face. Underneath the jacket, he wore a vivid green hoodie. “Look at my beautiful dressing room,” he said with a laugh, as he conducted me into the abbey’s Chapter House. An 22 the difference in philosophy
“In this costume-drama context, Michele’s vision looked more familiar, if hardly less peculiar.” on Alessandro Michele’s Cruise 2017 collection enormous octagonal space with huge stained-glass windows, medieval wall paintings, and a vaulted ceiling supported by one delicate central column, it was built by Henry III in the thirteenth century, and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of English Gothic. “I think it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life,” Michele said. “It is like the Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris, but probably better, because of the shape. It is like an animal, like a plant.” Another medieval glory of the Chapter House—its floor of glazed tiles—had been covered with carpeting. Dozens of clothes racks held the outfits that Michele planned to present that afternoon. He walked among the racks, pausing to examine a dress made from lavish, multicolored Indian silk. Then he glanced up at the stained-glass windows, which were inlaid with images of British kings and queens. “Look at Elizabeth I, with the gorgiera—the collar—around her neck,” he said. “Beautiful.” Also circulating backstage was Giovanni Attili, who appeared to observe his partner’s occupation with a detached anthropological interest. He later told me, “Alessandro’s professional world is very different from mine. In this difference I find a source of nourishment. Not only is his imagination explosive and contagious—his grounded references always convey such meaningful suggestions to my work.” When not accompanying Michele, Attili spends months at a time in Canada, conducting research among the Dakelh and Haida peoples. He was toweringly tall and as immoderately bearded as Michele. “He’s Neptune,” Michele said, upon introducing Attili. “There is a sculpture in Piazza Navona—that is him.” The guests arrived. Women wearing gauzy Gucci dresses shivered in the cold as they took their seats. Shortly after three, loudspeakers that had been set up around the cloister’s edge started playing a recording of the English folk song “Scarborough Fair,” as arranged for boy choristers. Floodlights illuminated the Gothic passageways. Then a cavalcade of nearly a hundred models emerged from the cloister, wearing studded heels or towering platform sneakers or fur-lined backless loafers. They walked along slippery flagstones that had been worn smooth over centuries of use, and stepped on the flat tombstones of departed pre-Reformation monks. Images from Gucci.com, from the Cruise 2017 collection. MIDDLE: One of the many stripes seen at the show TOP RIGHT: The iconic bamboo handle returns, paying homage to the heritage of Gucci Polaroid images: Atmosphere at the runway show, held at Westminster Abbey the difference in philosophy 23
Page 1 and 2: differentNo. 1 March 2017 Gucci’s
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Page 5 and 6: Photographs from Gucci.com. Portrai
Page 7 and 8: 01 At Gucci, a messy exit for one d
Page 9 and 10: LEFT: Gucci Autumn/Winter ‘15 cam
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Page 13 and 14: overseen the design of an entirely
Page 15 and 16: Madame de Pompadour by François Bo
Page 17 and 18: Photographs from Gucci.com, Spring
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Page 22 and 23: 1995 Fall 1995 Ready-to-Wear Fall 1
Page 26 and 27: In this costume-drama context, Mich
Page 29 and 30: Photographs from Gucci.com, Spring
Page 31: ed carpet but also for street style
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