Guests descended onto Arles, in the South of France, for Alessandro Michele’s Resort collection for Gucci, in the open air. The stage was set for a dramatic showcase- in the Alyscamps burial ground outside the city walls, in a garden lined with the stone sarcophagi of the Roman rulers who occupied this city, the playground of the Emperor Constantine. Bells tolled, sepulchral music filled the air, a line of fire coursed along a central channel in the walkway.

The new generation of Gucci is definitely here to stay, the show notes described Alessandro’s roll-call of characters as “widows attending grave sites, kids playing rock ‘n’ roll stars, and ladies who aren’t ladies.” Christian Lacroix, the great Arlesian couturier, painted in another part of the Alyscamps background, telling the story of how his own grandfather had played in the cemetery, sleeping among the graves as a teen dare one night, “and he swore he saw a lady in white.”

There was a lady in a long white gown, a ghostly bride, however, focusing in on the detail, the collection boasted a huge inventory for women and for men- or rather for whomever, in Michele’s way of pushing Gucci as a post-gendered trailblazer in fashion. Other stand-out looks were a velvet gown with a skeleton thorax embroidered on the bodice, leggings emblazoned with the words MEMENTO MORI, to toga dresses, a super- 70s flared trouser suit, as well as English checked tweeds, sweeping cloaks, and glasses galore.

Much is made of Michele’s brilliant commercial appeal to Gen Z, but this occasion was ultimately uplifting because of the very personal intergenerational note that brought the evening to a close. Elton John came on to play a spectacular set, with Michele sitting watching on stage, as spellbound as a fanboy who has made all his dreams come true.

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