By Mimosa Spencer and Elisa Anzolin
PARIS/MILAN (Reuters) – Gucci kicked off Milan trend week on Friday with a line of saggy and androgynous menswear kinds, transferring ahead with its newest assortment because the business waits for proprietor Kering to call a brand new designer for the label.
French luxurious group Kering is going through stress to rapidly discover a alternative after the abrupt departure in November of Alessandro Michele, the flamboyant designer favourite of Harry Kinds and Woman Gaga, and reignite gross sales development at its greatest model, which accounted for two-thirds of earnings in 2021.
The query of who will lead Gucci’s artistic path loomed over the mega-brand’s first males’s present within the Italian trend capital in three years. The occasions run via January 17 and draw an viewers that features high retail consumers sizing up which kinds may very well be future high sellers.
There have been echoes of Michele’s eccentric and gender-fluid kinds at Gucci’s runway presentation on Friday.
The fashions spun round a darkened room to the music of Marc Ribot’s stay band Ceramic Canine, showcasing outsized go well with coats with huge lapels and huge pleated trousers in pale beige and pastel shades, with new variations of the home’s classics, together with reminders of Michele’s tenure. together with fuzzy slippers adorned with horse bits.
It shows the notes, which consumers scan for indicators of the label’s subsequent steps, concerning improvisation and collaboration.
“When the free impulses of particular person minds intertwine, collective expressions are conceived,” the model notes mentioned.
Shimmering silver pants and padded biker boots added touches of caprice to the neutral-colored appears to be like, which have been snapped up by celebrities within the viewers, together with Okay-pop star Kai, soccer participant Jalen Ramsey and the band Italian rock Maneskin.
UBS expects Kering’s earnings launch on February 15 to indicate the model’s fourth-quarter gross sales declined round 11%, possible one of many steepest slowdowns among the many world’s high trend manufacturers as strict COVID-19 restrictions weighed on enterprise in China.
“The longer the watch for a brand new Gucci artistic director, the more serious the outlook for Kering,” mentioned Luca Solca, an analyst at Bernstein, noting that “extra of the identical” wouldn’t assist the model regain relevance between the consumers.
TIMELESS FASHIONS, INVESTMENT IN MARKETING
In the meantime, HSBC analysts mentioned the efforts made earlier than Michele’s departure may ease the transition, forecasting an enchancment this yr, no matter who takes artistic path.
They pointed to a latest emphasis on timeless fashions and higher-priced merchandise, in addition to a rise in advertising and marketing spending and a rise within the variety of collections as possible to assist speed up enterprise.
Gucci reined in advertising and marketing investments throughout the pandemic whereas LVMH’s two greatest manufacturers, Louis Vuitton and Dior, solid forward, a transfer that analysts say helped them achieve floor on rivals.
Kering’s different smaller trend homes, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga, had been rising strongly till late final yr, however Balenciaga was embroiled in controversy after a Christmas advert marketing campaign drew accusations of inappropriate imagery with kids.
Nevertheless, regardless of the present turmoil at Kering, expectations are excessive given the group’s robust observe file in constructing manufacturers, analysts say.
The group’s manufacturers are recognized for “capturing the Zeitgeist,” mentioned Solca, who known as Gucci’s previous success “probably the most spectacular story of change within the historical past of luxurious.”
The business can be anticipating large adjustments at different extremely profitable labels.
Adjustments in high administration at Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior introduced this week prompted discuss of a shakeup of the design crew, together with at Louis Vuitton’s menswear division, which has relied on the design studio crew for the reason that demise of artistic director Virgil Abloh in late 2021.
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer in Paris and Elisa Anzolin in Milan; Enhancing by Frances Kerry)