Ancora Red is out; Emerald Green has arrived. Or so it seemed during the Gucci show during the opening of Milan Fashion Week, where it was as if Sabato de Sarno, the designer who left abruptly earlier this month, had practically never been there.
Fashion, it turns out, is completely capable of his own revisionist history. It’s that kind of moment.
Mr. De Sarno was not mentioned in the show notes, which instead spoke of “many owners and guardians” and “generation shifts”. His characteristic shadow of Burgundy, which he called “Ancora” after the Italian word for “again” – as in: “I want it again, again”, an idea that more like Wishful thinking than the reality turned out – was also disappeared.
At the end of the show, the design team came out en masse when you match green sweatshirts to take a bow. The runway formed two huge interlocking GS that were reflected in the mirrored ceiling, where the audience could also see the usual famous crew of the first row-toysa Chastain, DEV Patel, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jannik Sinner-Even if a live orchestra That a live orchestra played. Original score by Justin Hurwitz, the composer behind ‘La La Land’.
It doesn’t matter who is behind the curtain, the brand lives on. Even if in a detention pattern. Even if in a mishmash of a show that seemed as convincing as the man whose contributions seemed to be trying to erase.
Because still to be seen was the style that Mr. The Sarno to Gucci brought when he was hired in 2023 and charged with cleaning the brand of Alessandro Michele’s surplus and converting it into a “timeless” name. Not surprisingly, perhaps, that until about two weeks ago, Mr De Sarno was still designing the collection. The team just added a little history, from here, references from there.
Mr. De Sarno, for example, was present in the Halterhals Kant-Bodysuits, which was inspired by Lingerie, combined with Frumpy Tweed pencil skirts and in the candy pink slip dresses. In the super short Boxy Tweed-Tunics who apparently had replaced his favorite shorts. Skirts embroidered in the lace with large flower paillettes under grandma mohair sweater sets.
And in the men’s wear versions of all the above that came afterwards (the show was split, so instead of weaving the men’s and women’s clothing together, as is usually the case in shows with double genera, the men followed the women’s In both reality and ideas). See the rounded tweed about coats on top of Gliddey, grab double bores; Beads shirts under sweater vests; The same mohair, in a Body-Con vid.
Together with everything, a few faux fur bedroom slippers reminiscent of the fur glasses from the Michele era, one with Strass logo velvet bodysuit and a backless lamé jersey t-shirt dress around the time. And even some Prada-like speed of the 90s of kerchiefs and off-catch color combinations, such as bright purple and lime green, or burned Sienna and Gray.
That after two years the signature of Mr De Sarno could be reduced to a handful of known styles, a reflection of why his term of office was just as abbreviated as the zoom lines that he benefited. And why in the story of the brand he is rather a footnote than a protagonist. His vision of Gucci always seemed like a palate cleaning agent, instead of a meaty main course. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t memorable.
That does not mean he didn’t matter. He was the equivalent of the fashion of a bridge friend and created some distance from the drama of the Gucci of Mr. Michele, and he should get the honor for that. He had the thankless task to make the necessary space for any big idea – while, probably unconsciously, he demonstrates the need for a big idea. Another expansive and surprising, then a horse bit or a color alone. One that nobody can forget next time.
