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Gucci -- That '70s Show
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
MILAN, Jan 16, 2003 /FWD/ --- In a season in which half the designers in Milan are
focused on early-'80s British Pop culture, it was a welcome break to attend the Gucci men's
collection Tuesday evening, which cast its regard a few years back and a lot further afield.
For this Gucci collection reeked of late-'70s penthouse parties and the devilment that
went on therein.
That much was clear from the card resting on guests' seats - a decadent youth wearing last
season's Chinese silk jacket grabbing a naughty nymph around her thighs as she pulled down
her knickers to reveal pubic hair cut into the form of a G.
A new black'n'white carpet in G of the same type graced the floor of Gucci's custom-built
catwalk space where the show was staged, summing up the new black.
Tom Ford, like nearly everyone this week, slipped in his share of military silhouettes,
from Eisenhower jackets in sleek black wool with eight big gold buttons to Victorian great
coats and smooth safari jackets.
Yet, these were officers who avoided the minefield in favor of the hip club opening.
It remains to be seen whether a lot of men will buy into the retro Gucci suit of short
jacket, wide lapels and flares so wide they covered every single shoe.
They may have been the best so far this season, but it will take a brave dandy to wear them out.
The tailoring was exact yet the mood was risqué throughout as models in huge shades and
fake moustaches like Miami Vice coke dealers strode down the carpet.
"I've built my career around reworking retro looks, but always making contemporary clothes,"
Ford explained backstage.
"There was no single icon" in the show, he continued.
"It's just that the fact that growing up in the '70s always influenced my work."
It was an erratic collection.
One second a brilliant ribbed and zippered cardigan that most guys would delight in wearing,
the next a weird sweater plastered with an inverted V suede panel.
Quibbles aside, there were still probably more wearable items in this Gucci show than in
any other in Milan.
However, the biggest problem with the show was that it never really took off.
Hard as it is to write it, judged by Ford's very high standards, this show felt,
well, formulaic.
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