Enter the new era of hidden wealth

MILAN — Shortly after the last guest stepped off the avocado-colored rug lining Gucci’s show space and outside the brand’s headquarters in the outlying parts of the city on Friday, #Gucci began popping up on Twitter. Was it because of the adorable outfits that just hit the runway? Was it because what we used to wear was turned upside down for a new era?

Nah. It was because of the front row.

As soon as possible, my hero! Manskin! Dakota Johnson! Especially Xiao Zhan, the Chinese actor and singer, who sat next to Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri and practically caused a riot on his way to and from the show.

In fact, the frenzy associated with these celebs is, in all likelihood, why Gucci even showed up, since the brand is between designers and between ideas, based on what appeared on the runway.

Alessandro Michele, the latest creative director and the man who transformed Gucci from a gilded avatar into a whimsical tentpole, left in November, and Sabato Di Sarno, set to make something happen to Reset, won’t arrive until this spring (and his first show is scheduled for September).

Designed by the studio team, the current show was a time-lapse, buddy-like bridge between the Michele and Di Sarno eras: a little of this, a little of that, some GG on top.

You can spot Tom Ford in the early ’90s in logo belts and velvet jeans, and some late Fords in visible G-strings under sheer, sequined skirts. See Michelle’s old-fashioned appeal in towering oversized feather hats and a Harry Styles-esque silver tinsel coat. Although Frida Giannini’s interregnum period, which occurred from 2006 to 2014, seems to have been largely wiped from the books.

It was all so familiar that when a simple gray tailored coat showed up on ’90s model Liisa Winkler, it struck a noticeable palate-cleaning chord. There has been a lot of talk about how Gucci wants to move away from indoor and outdoor fashion, and become more timeless. Ironically, if that were true and the coat was a harbinger of things to come, Gucci would, once again, be on trend.

Aside from the ever-present K-pop stars and other Asian influencers (every brand has at least one: DK from Seventeen at Bally, to see Rhuigi Villaseñor’s new version of Ford’s Gucci luxe; Joy ​​from Red Velvet at Tod’s), Milan’s biggest makeover Towards what was once called stowaway wealth. or “classics”. Or, as Max Mara puts it in the show notes, “camelocracy.” which won the award for Newcomer of the Week.

Define it: the type of clothing that does not advertise value in obvious ways (patterning, logos, small inserts, bright colors) but instead relies on softness of fabric and toughness of line—on instinct rather than affective information—to suggest value. This is not shouting, but whispering.

Italy has always had a style with such a vocal flair, thanks to its history with textile mills and leather goods. For anyone with a Katharine Hepburn fantasy, this is the time to go shopping. Brands like Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli have built their names on the deep luxury of their materials, and they lean on their expertise.

At Jil Sander, the brand that once defined inner-dressing possibilities, Luke and Lucy Meyer drop hemlines, blazers and oversized coats, adding hourglass structure to jackets before taking an unexpected, and somewhat unfortunate, turn into motorcycle leather and tech. . In Ferragamo (K-pop star: NCT’s Gino), Maximilian Davis added tiny slits to the sleeves and bodice of a sleek black suit jacket to reveal a flash of white or red underneath: a reminder that there’s more detail going on underneath all that stitching than you might immediately assume. .

It makes sense: In an inflationary haze, when the economy can be unpredictable, wearing your disposable income on your back can be uncomfortable. There’s a reason the last time hidden fortune was in fashion was 2008, which itself evoked the ’90s—once again (as with Gucci’s Ms. Winkler, as well as with her Amy Wesson) decade of reference.

The secret superpower of Bottega Veneta

Nobody raised the bar on the whole idea like Matteo Blazzi at Bottega Veneta. This season he sent a leather bracelet without a watch as an invitation — get it? Immortal – He won the loan of three equally immortal bronzes for his offer: “Unique forms of continuity in spaceby the Italian Futurist Umberto Boccioni, usually displayed in the National Gallery in Cosenza, and The Runners, two first-century BC sculptures from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

The sculptures stood on a rug woven to imitate stracciatella, Mr. Blazy’s favorite flavor of ice cream (or so he said before the show), which like the art (his favorite pieces), were there to reflect the destination of the garments he was making; What matters is not the obvious price of something, or the hierarchy of aesthetics. It’s personal taste.

Hence his signature fashion-party trick: leather made to imitate other fabrics, so what looks like jeans, for example, or a white striped Oxford shirt and boxer shorts, or a gray flannel, or even, this time, red knit sock slippers, to be, In fact, the softest leather. Curl up in the couch with whipped gelato! It’s an insanely decadent proposition. Magnificence can be a superstitious secret of its own.

The effect is mind-boggling, but the bigger drive is about an individual and generous approach to dressing where the details matter: a bright yellow trapeze jacket and skirt woven with hundreds of tiny skin petals, so it sways and rocks with every step; a black wool cocktail dress wrapped around the body and draped at one thigh by a crafty ceramic ring; Squiggles, like lace, on airy seams that turn out to be rubber. Two-layer coat, and a Wac-A-Mole-sized intrecciato tote.

They talk to different characters (choose your poison) but they grumble about the same. As Mr. Blazy said, “when you wear it, you’re the only one who knows” how special it actually is. Even in the boisterous crescendo from the crowd outside when BTS’s RM walked in, the power of that suggestion was apparent.