The good old Tom Ford is back at Gucci FW26 Ah, that was Demna's?

With La Famiglia, Demna had presented his vision for Gucci, a universe made up of unique characters and equally original looks. This time, for his runway debut with the Maison, he chose to play it safe. All this came just a few days after the release of his first campaigns, a series of images and videos created with AI that sparked considerable controversy within the creative industry. «Provoking is what he does best - he must have done it on purpose to stir us up before the show», Demna’s press and fans reassured. And so, after a film and two lookbooks that had hit the mark, mixing archive pieces and newness with a good dose of insolence, today Demna chose to win the trust of Kering and investors with a majestic, sensual, and glamorous show, yet lacking the originality he had promised his fans at the beginning of his creative direction.

Yesterday, following the controversy surrounding Gucci’s latest AI campaigns, Demna shared a public note outlining his vision for the Maison. Speaking about the brand, the designer stated that he identifies the brand as a person: «It is drama, passion, excess, contradiction, love and hate, triumph and collapse, pride and vulnerability, perseverance, chaos, genius. Everything that can be said about a human being can be said about Gucci». He recounted visiting the Uffizi and seeing Botticelli’s Primavera for the first time, which inspired Gucci Flora, and discovering Botticelli’s Venus. Enchanted, the first thing he noticed upon stepping out into Piazza della Signoria was Palazzo Gucci. «In that moment, I understood the place Gucci occupies within Italian culture [...] I don’t want it to be intellectual, but I want Gucci to be a feeling».

At the feet of imposing statues, along an endless strip of white light, a collection made up of an impressive number of looks took to the runway. But while the set transported the audience to the center of Florence, bodycon dresses, ultra-tight T-shirts, and skinny pants directly recalled the late ’90s. The high and low cast, featuring new-generation rappers such as Nettspend and Fakemink alongside historic supermodels like Kate Moss, Karlie Kloss, and Elsa Hosk, amplified the show’s media impact, while the models’ walk itself - tired, limping, and distracted - echoed the old Demna-era Balenciaga attitude.

From low-rise trousers to muscle shirts, from plunging necklines to the golden Horse-Bit decorating bare skin, everything carried the same flavor of Tom Ford’s Gucci. A flavor that also smells of money, considering the attention the American designer’s pieces have been receiving online in recent months, across fashion archives and second-hand resale sites (since 2021, searches for Gucci by Tom Ford have skyrocketed worldwide). After sensational lookbooks and films, for the runway Demna decided to give the audience - namely buyers, investors, and Gucci devotees - exactly what it wanted. To surprise us, he left only a few trousers pulled down to reveal underwear and about a dozen logo belt bags; it may not be the recessioncore of 2008, but it certainly wasn’t enough to leave us speechless.