Gucci To Merge Men’s And Women’s Shows

Gucci To Merge Men’s And Women’s Shows

It’s no secret that the fashion world is interested in gender politics and Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele is certainly playing his part with his announcement that both his men’s and womenswear collections will be shown on one catwalk. He paired this announcement with a statement: ‘It seems only natural to me to present my men’s and women’s collections together, it’s the way I see the world today’.

Prior to Gucci’s announcement, British brand Burberry had revealed that come September they plan to show season-less men’s and women’s wear collections together on the runway in an effort to ‘build a closer connection between the experience that we create with runway shows and the moment when people can physically explore the collections for themselves’ (said Christopher Bailey, the company’s chief creative and chief executive officer). With this shift in the way fashion is presented to us, Burberry intended to close the gap between catwalk and consumer, however it seems that Gucci’s stance is more about the way we perceive fashion in general.

President and CEO of Gucci stated that having two different shows ‘has been a result of tradition rather than practicality’. Therefore this change is potentially a seismic shift in the way catwalk shows function. Indeed an evolution seems to be underway, with label’s such Vetements and Tom Ford following suit in this coed project.

It will be interesting to see whether this change will have an effect on the clothes themselves, as a cohesive show is dependent on looks that balance each other out. Will this change see the beginning of more feminine menswear collections? The beginning of more masculine womenswear? Or the birth of a unisex revolution?

Gucci To Merge Men’s And Women’s Shows