Scribd
Upload
90 views2 pages

Gucci Excerpt

Alessandro Michele was hired as creative director of Gucci in 2015 and reinvented the brand. His first collection featured gender-blended styles and vintage elements. This represented a shift from Gucci's previous sexy and luxury image under Tom Ford. Michele's vision appealed strongly to millennials through colorful, playful designs and gender-bending styles. Under his leadership, Gucci has become the top-performing digital fashion brand by heavily utilizing social media and campaigns featuring millennial icons. This new direction has helped Gucci grow its younger customer base but may have distanced some older, traditional customers seeking a more classic luxury brand image.

Uploaded by

ellyse
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
90 views2 pages

Gucci Excerpt

Alessandro Michele was hired as creative director of Gucci in 2015 and reinvented the brand. His first collection featured gender-blended styles and vintage elements. This represented a shift from Gucci's previous sexy and luxury image under Tom Ford. Michele's vision appealed strongly to millennials through colorful, playful designs and gender-bending styles. Under his leadership, Gucci has become the top-performing digital fashion brand by heavily utilizing social media and campaigns featuring millennial icons. This new direction has helped Gucci grow its younger customer base but may have distanced some older, traditional customers seeking a more classic luxury brand image.

Uploaded by

ellyse
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Ellyse Veitch

The Rise of Alessandro Michele


Gucci’s big turning point of changing their market began in 2004, when Frida Giannini became
the new creative director for the brand. Giannini was heavily inspired by different historical eras
with each new collection she released. With this inspiration, her collections appear more
wearable, less flashy, and sleeker. This heavily contrasted to Gucci’s previous creative director
Tom Ford, who’s designs exuded sex appeal and mystique. Originally, Gianni’s change of pace
was well received, however after a few years as the seasons progressed; customers became
confused at the wide variety in eras of inspiration. This resulted in a loss of interest for the brand
as a whole, and Frida was eventually fired in 2014 (Maisey, 2016). With the inconsistency in
Giannini’s designs being considered, it poses the question of the last time Gucci had a defined
target market at all.

After Frida’s termination in 2014, Marco Bizzarri (President and CEO of Gucci) hired Alessandro
Michele a year later to be Giannini’s replacement. Alessandro was hired approximately a week
before the next Men’s Fashion Week and created an entirely new collection in 5 days (Maisey,
2016). His inspiration for this new collection was taken from “Gucci archives, and looking at
antique textiles and clothes, extracting any elements that caught his eye – down to scraps of
carpet.” (Maisey, 2016).

The Design Shift


“The collection he delivered five days later was a total reinvention of the label. He repositioned
the house, presenting eclectic and vibrant pieces jumbled together in a colourful melange of
vintage and new. The first model down the runway in Milan was as far from the Gucci of old as it
was possible to be. The new Gucci man had long hair and wore a bright red pussy-bow blouse.
Michele delivered men wearing women’s clothes, and women wearing men’s clothes. The
models were geeky, the genders were blurred and the clothes were a revelation.” (Maisey,
2016).

There’s no question that this collection would appeal to a younger, and more current audience.
Gender experimentation has become one of the biggest and most widely accepted
phenomenons among young people within recent years, as well as combining vintage inspired
materials with modern silhouettes. “Fearless, flamboyant and gender-ambiguous, [Michele’s]
collection of faux vintage looks – many resembling something you might find on your
grandmother’s washing line – was young and joyful. Fashion was suddenly about creativity
again. Money no longer felt like the driving force, as pretty young things stomped down the
runway seemingly wearing whatever they felt like.” (Maisey, 2016). From this point on, it was
clear that Gucci was less about status and more about having fun with fashion. It’s possible that
Gucci’s previous, older target market, are still more interested in classic designs than
innovation. Often, people in older generations have a very black and white view of fashion. To
them, fashion is frequently a symbol of status and exclusivity, rather than a symbol of
personality, creativity or gender expression. Gucci forgetting the norms and concepts of gender
altogether, is clearly a step in the direction of inclusivity. It’s possible this is causing a distaste
for Gucci in the minds of it’s previous target market.
Ellyse Veitch

Appealing to a Younger Audience


According to Forbes, “L2 Research, which specializes in data-driven analysis, gave its top spot
for best performing digital fashion brand to Gucci in 2016 and it hangs onto that position in
2017. L2’s measure of fashion brand’s “digital competence” includes website and e-commerce,
digital marketing, social media and mobile. In those key measures it outranks Michael Kors,
Fendi, Burberry and Louis Vuitton, its closest digital-savvy brands.” (Danziger, 2017). Gucci
being named the top digital fashion brand demonstrates the change in Gucci’s target market. It
is clear that Gucci is utilizing their digital marketing to continue to appeal to a younger
demographic, as it is known that younger people are almost always users of social media and e-
commerce.

Gucci’s repositioning is also evident within their celebrity sponsorships and campaigns. “Out
went the corporate office black-and-white pictures of past celebrities that were historically the
face of the brand, like Grace Kelly and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Instead Gucci now
dresses contemporary style icons that resonate with millennials, like Rhianna, Blake Lively,
Brad Pitt, Rachel McAdams and Selma Hayek, not surprising as she is wife of Kering CEO
Pinault. Sir Elton John is a friend of Michele’s and was the inspiration for many fashions shown
at Gucci’s spring/summer 2018 show.” (Danziger, 2017). Gucci choosing millennials for their
new campaigns further enforces the desire for millennials to buy their clothing. Even though
Elton John is 71, he still demonstrates the elements of originality and androgyny that Gucci has
been striving for since Alessandro Michele took over.

This secondary research makes it clear that a very deliberate shift in Gucci’s branding and
designs was created by Alessandro Michele. This was a shift within their marketing, as well as
target market. It’s possible that Gucci’s previous target market is less interested in Gucci
because of their new approach to gender and lack thereof, or it’s possible that Alessandro’s new
vision for the brand is too flashy and experimental. These questions should be answered after
primary research is complete.

You might also like