Gucci Will Not Follow The Traditional Fashion Calendar, Going Seasonless, Hints At New Ways To Show

Gucci Spring 2020 RTW

ROME, ITALY — Gucci‘s creative director Alessandro Michele scheduled a teleconference with press today Monday (May 25), but before the actual conference, he posted an announcement on the luxury house’s Instagram that is sure to reverberate in the industry.

Original written as a diary entry in Rome, on May 3, under the moniker “The Sacred Power of Producing Reverberations,” the designer writes: “Therefore, I will abandon the worn-out ritual of seasonalities and shows to regain a new cadence, closer to my expressive call. We will meet just twice a year, to share the chapters of a new story. Irregular, joyful and absolutely free chapters, which will be written blending rules and genres, feeding on new spaces, linguistic codes and communication platforms. And beyond. I would like to leave behind the paraphernalia of leitmotifs that colonized our prior world: cruise, pre-fall, spring-summer, fall-winter. I think these are stale and underfed words. Labels of an impersonal discourse that lost its meaning. Containers that progressively detached themselves from the life that generated them, losing touch with reality. I believe that we can build our tomorrow also starting from a renewed capacity of denomination. Here comes the desire to baptize our new encounters by naming them after a language that has marvelously ancient roots: classical music language. Accordingly, there will be symphonies, rhapsodies, madrigals, nocturnes, overtures, concerts and minuets in the constellation of my creative path. Music, after all, has the sacred power to produce reverberations and connections. It travels beyond the borders, reconnecting the fragility to the infinity. “

The coronavirus pandemic has been shaking the industry in more ways than one, as the lockdown in countries around the world has halted production, forced store closures, canceled resort shows and trade events, red carpet events, award shows, sports games and pushed companies to revisit deliveries. Designers have been reconsidering calendars, show formats and whether there is just too much product out there, as going digital is necessarily a priority for most at the moment — at least until the health emergency effects are behind us.

As reported, Dries Van Noten has spearheaded a petition for a more sensible and sustainable fashion calendar as signatories are hoping to seize on circumstances created by the coronavirus pandemic — later deliveries for fall collections due to factory shutdowns in Europe — and make that the new normal. The forum proposes that men’s and women’s fall collections should be merchandised in stores from August to January, with markdowns in January, and spring collections displayed from February to July, with markdowns in July.

Giorgio Armani, Saks Fifth Avenue and Philadelphia retailer Boyds have also been urging a slowdown in the pace of fashion, with deliveries better timed to consumer needs and discounts only at the end of seasons.

Brands and designers have been gradually revealing how they plan to show their collections.

Examples include Saint Laurent, DM Fashion Book recently reported that the brand will not show at Paris Fashion Week and set its own pace for showing collections for the duration of the year (see it here).

Shortly after the Camera della Moda revealed the launched of its first Milano Digital Fashion Week in July (see it here), Armani said his namesake and Emporio Armani men’s and women’s shows will be presented in September here in a format to be defined. He also said the Armani Privé show will be postponed to January 2021 and will be held in Milan and not in Paris.

Ermenegildo Zegna’s artistic director Alessandro Sartori said he will experiment with a “phygital” show in July. As reported, Italy’s Camera Nazionale della Moda said that the spring 2021 men’s shows and presentations slated for June 19 to 23 will run in September during Milan Women’s Fashion Week, which is expected to start on the Sept. 22 and end on Sept. 28. (see it here).

Photos Credit: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com