The Gucci 100 collection is a nostalgic trip through pop culture history
For the new Gucci 100 collection, Alessandro Michele embraces Gucci's enduring position in the pop culture lexicon.
22,705 – that's the exact number of times that the Gucci brand has been cited in lyrics over the years. The brand has been name-dropped through the decades by artistes across the world as a shorthand for luxury and panache. It's a trend especially prevalent today: Think Lil Pump's Gucci Gang, Rick Ross' Green Gucci Suit, and Future's explicit, much memed line from Thought It Was a Drought.
Alessandro Michele has certainly heard the songs, too – and he's embraced them wholeheartedly for the house's Gucci 100 collection. The brand's Creative Director understands just how keenly Gucci has both contributed and benefited from its space in popular culture, and pays tribute to it in the house's latest collection to celebrate its centennial. This manifests itself in fur-trimmed shoes, canvas bags that contrast archive prints and bold lettering, along with striking patterned outerwear.
It's not just 21st century trap upstarts that have caught Alessandro Michele's attention. The Gucci 100 collection pays homage to the braggadocio of old school hip-hop songs from the likes of Eric B. & Rakim (a line from their 1989 billboard hit The R appears on several pieces in the collection – the lyric goes 'music is mine, Gucci seats reclined') as well as the rawness of punk rock – a rather literal lyric from garage punk band The Cramps appears on several canvas bags as well ('This one's dedicated to all you Gucci bag carriers out there, it's called "You Got Good Taste!"').
Of course, a Gucci collection wouldn't be complete without the house's emblematic logo, applied liberally throughout the collection on jacquard moccasins and leather bags alike.
Beyond overt references to some of pop culture's most brazen songs, Michele is also sentimental about how far the 100-year-old Italian brand has come. In his notes for this year's Aria collection, he compares Gucci to a towering, aged tree – albeit one that is not inveterate or timeworn, but one that is able to change with the seasons and sink its roots even deeper and further with the years.
"In my work, I caress the roots of the past to create unexpected inflorescences, carving the matter through grafting and pruning," said Michele. "I appeal to such ability to reinhabit what has already been given."
