Gucci Channels Stanley Kubrik’s Iconic Movie Scenes in its Latest Campaign

Fashion and film share a symbiotic relationship. They are not two disconnected art disciplines but instead, complementary to each other. The moving image has a unique charm in enforcing a mode for storytelling through fashion, opening up a two-fold pictorial space for viewers. Their coexistence has been made possible through several movies with a notable mention of ‘House of Gucci’. With fashion’s pivotal role in film, it offers an insight into the exterior facade of the wearer, establishing a connection between the character’s identity and the plot. 

The marriage of both has certainly galvanized Creative Director, Alessandro Michele’s illustration of clothing within cinematic outputs. “If you ask me, a garment is not, and never will be, just a piece of fabric. It’s rather the means through which we are able to unfold who we really decide to be, it’s how we shape our desires and the ultimate sense of our staying. That’s why I’ve always imagined my collections as films able to convey a cinematography of the present: a score of stories, eclectic and dissonant, that can sacralize the human and its metamorphic ability.” Michele articulates the close liaisons between fashion and film.

With Stanley Kubrik’s body of works at the heart of the campaign’s striking visuals, we saw how the Italian house fused fashion and film while emphasizing Gucci’s signature codes with models adorning the Autumn/Winter 2022 collection, titled ‘Exquisite’, featuring luxury retro sportswear in collaboration with Adidas.

Michele says in a press release: “This involvement generates a change of state that is very significant for my job: clothes get closer to bare life again. They turn into highly imaginative functional prosthesis, and they do so to tell a story. A story that shatters, enchants, tortures, ignites.”

Reinhabiting Kubrik’s films, the red Adidas gown is introduced as a new character in Gucci’s version of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, a voluminous tulle gown bursts into the dystopic scene of the Discovery One in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and finally '90s-inspired style with a fetish twist brimming through the frames of Clockwork Orange are just some of the famous scenes from Kubrik’s masterpiece.

Lensed by Mert & Marcus, the campaign is also accompanied by a short video that combines the different scenes from the respective movies, readapted with designs from Gucci’s AW22 collection. Michele worked closely with Warner Bros. as well as costume designers Milena Canonero and Charlotte Walter for a precise and accurate portrayal of each scene. The chilling and mesmeric adaptation is synonymous with Kubrik’s highly celebrated, distinctive visual style, capturing the essence of the films.