Fashion loves a bit of travelling, whether it’s a “Cruise” collection, or a “runway,” or just the fact we always seem to be on a plane, zooming to some gorge exotic locale to view fabulous clothes. It’s a tough job is this fashion malarky. Alessandro Michele’s Gucci collection was influenced by travel, too – but his seems much more exciting than ours, judging by the amount he’s been to Asia, bringing back embroideries, kimono silks and cheongsam shapes. Never mind the triple-headed dragons that reared their multiple necks on the backs of bombers and a luscious mink coat in his spring show. Michele was inspired, he said, by the dream of travel, the notion of travel as a voyage of discovery. He unearthed plenty of delights on the way, in his quest: brocades, embroideries, heavily-embellished biker jackets with the lustre of far-flung luxuries. And the brought them all to Milan, for us to see. Alas, this was our last stand-alone menswear show by Michele – we’ll be cut down from five to three shows a year. A crying shame, given how much we love the luxurious landscape he’s crafting for us. We want all the time possible to explore it.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
