On Wednesday, Gucci unveiled its Fall/Winter collection at the 2018-2019 Milan Fashion Week in a bizarre show never seen before.
In a twisted attempt at ingeniousness, Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele made his male and female models walk the ramp carrying replicas of their own severed heads at the brand’s 2018 Fall/Winter show at the Milan Fashion Week.
In keeping with the show’s grotesque “Cyborg” theme, the runway area was done up like a sterile operating theatre, complete with surgical lights above operating tables covered in green sheets, with matching green walls to complete OT look.
What’s more is that the freakiness did not end there; models were also seen walking the ramp carrying a snake, chameleon and a baby dragon, with one model even sporting a third eye on her forehead.
A note, explaining the “Gucci Cyborg” theme, distributed to the event’s guests read, “Gucci Cyborg is post-human: it has eyes on its hands, faun horns, dragon’s puppies and doubling heads.”
Quoting Donna Haraway’s 1984 essay “A Cyborg Manifesto,” the creative director’s gross props were aimed at demonstrating “a figure that can overcome the dualism and dichotomy of identity.”
Surprisingly, there were a few takers like Chiara Mastroianni , to name one, who saw talent and humor in the bizarreness of it all.
“What touches me is not just the talent but also the dose of humor and self-deprecation on the part of Alessandro Michele,” gushed the actress. “His collection is so rich it will take time to understand everything.”
Well, Ms. Mastroianni , let’s put it this way: for many, even an entire lifetime would not be enough to understand what was really going on in the name of creativity and fashion.
Vogue reports that Michele worked with an Italian company by the name of Makinarium that operates out of Rome and is known for its expertise in providing special and visual effects for movies and has worked with renowned directors including Danny Boyle, Ridley Scott and Ben Stiller.
Makinarium co-founder Leonardo Cruciano, reportedly, told the fashion and lifestyle magazine that the House of Horror props collection seen at the Gucci event took as long as six months to perfect, requiring 3D scans of the models’ heads to replicate them as decapitated heads.
“[Michele’s] a true artist, with a real passion, a fantasy so intense and inspiring, it pushes you forward,” Cruciano told Vogue.
And, why would he say anything otherwise, considering the fat sum he may have charged to portray the Gucci creative director’s sick creativity.
Another highlight of the first day at the Milan Fashion Week was the National Chamber for Italian Fashion’s launch of the exhibition “Italiana: Italy Through the Lens of Fashion 1971-2001,” at Milan’s Palazzo Reale, which saw the likes of Giorgio Armani, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Donatella Versace, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Silvia Venturini Fendi in attendance.
Identity, Democracy, Logomania, Diorama, Project Room, Bazaar, Post-Production, Glocal and The Italy of Objects were the themes of the exhibitions, with clothes from Versace, Armani, Missoni, Gianfranco Ferre Krizia and Romeo Gigli.
“There is no nostalgic intention but rather pride and willingness to celebrate fashion and reproduce its complexity,” said fashion critic and curator Maria-Luisa Frisa.
“Italian fashion is a creative laboratory that has generated worlds, defined strong individual characteristics… and continues to do so today,” she added.
Coming back to the Gucci horror show, here’s how the Twitterati reacted.
I love Gucci but can we go back to the good old fashioned runways and not a surgery room with models carrying replicas of their heads pic.twitter.com/W1PvMGky4G
— Vicky Gill (@vickygillxo) February 21, 2018
*How to protect your head*?
Poor people – Helmets#Gucci people – Spare heads.#GucciGang #GucciFW18 pic.twitter.com/lCAC44TMge— Goddamit (@iAmitSaroj) February 21, 2018
Modeling 101: It’s alway good to carry a spare head with you ? @gucci #FW18 #MFW ???? !? https://t.co/fu3UMbokN1 pic.twitter.com/sfIbNedZ4T
— SUPERMODELS-ONLINE (@supermodelscom) February 21, 2018
MY ONLY TWO MOODS:#gucci #GucciFW18 #MFW pic.twitter.com/ZoqEfQG0wk
— TOTO (@thoai3000) February 21, 2018
Off with their heads at @gucci Fall/Winter 2018. #MilanFashionWeek pic.twitter.com/If1YsslwNL
— HYPEBAE (@hype_bae) February 21, 2018
Just another example of unrealistic body standards. SMH. #gucci https://t.co/yvVYukeGcF
— Britt Van (@BrittMVan) February 21, 2018