Can Gucci’s new creative director Demna save the brand?

There was really only one show that everyone was waiting for in Milan. After months of soft-launching product teasers, films and new advertising campaigns – some of which were controversially AI-generated – the grand reveal of Gucci’s brand-new look by Demna (only one name, please) was finally here. 

After years of declining sales and crisis management, Gucci had turned to one of the industry’s star designers — who breathed new life into Balenciaga — to mastermind a bold brand reinvention last year. To say it was badly needed is an understatement; Gucci accounts for two-thirds of operating profits for its parent group Kering. From 2022 to 2025, the brand’s revenues went from about €10.5 billion (US$12.18 million; S$15.69 billion) to €6 billion.

With the luxury industry in a prolonged sales downturn, the stakes could not have been higher as a vast throng descended upon a marble forum-style set, dotted with classical statues inspired by a trip to the Gucci archives in Florence that had culminated in a visit to the Uffizi to see Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”.

In his show notes, Demna said he had been ruminating on the past, present and future place that Gucci holds within Italian culture and Italy’s national mindset. To him, the power of the brand lay in the fact that its roots were not in some rarefied couture house, but pragmatic products and the chaos of the street. 

“My vision of Gucci is about the coexistence of heritage and fashion,” he said. “Above the product, Gucci is culture, it is a way of thinking and a way of being.” So what did that actually mean in practice?

Ever the provocateur, Demna started with what he called a “palette cleanser” — and others would call a paean to bad taste. Seamless tight white mini-dresses, low-rise skinny jeans and black spray-on cutaway leggings for the girls; metallic jeans and shimmery T-shirts with artfully placed muscle-enhancing padding for the lads.

A sharp intake of breath could be felt across the rows of suited executives who might have been hoping for a clear home run back to easy double-digit sales growth. Then again, that isn’t a world that exists anymore. Maybe this was Demna’s way of saying: get real. 

Conventionally safer ground could be found in the classic leather shoes, bags and masses of merch that have always been the cornerstone of Gucci sales, many of which were immediately available to buy on the brand’s website and selected stores post show (versus customers waiting a customary six months): the horsebit-loafers, boots and pumps or the Bamboo tote.

Then came more elevated looks that evoked chic Italian ladies who lunch, such as plush stoles and extravagant faux furs, paired with knee-length skirts in swishy printed silks or covered in the signature interlocking “G” logo. Lots of sexy tailoring and immaculately cut wool coats with alluring leather pants. Eveningwear was definitely designed to dazzle, with sequins and rhinestones galore scattered across mini-dresses, cocktail shifts with marabou fringing or one-shouldered gowns with splits that soared up to the mid-torso.

He might have made his set like a museum, but Demna’s relevance has always been rooted in his unwavering commitment to the current moment and to realism. As the designer introduced his deliberately dishevelled universe of people, archetypes, consumers and dress codes, the “Primavera” collection felt like a study of Italian fashion in all its good, bad and ugly forms. It was also a tribute to the Gucci designers who had come before him.

A one-time Gucci saviour, Alessandro Michele, sat next to Paris Hilton on a front row with few major celebrities or paid ambassadors (which felt refreshing). Touches of Tom Ford and noughties nostalgia were found everywhere, from double leather looks to a very clingy and sparkly black maxi jersey dress worn by Kate Moss to close the show. The very last glance of the collection was Moss’s bottom, clad in a black string thong with an interlocking “G” diamante buckle. Ciao a tutti!

Not everyone will like this new Gucci. Demna, clearly, has made his peace with that. The question is whether his new boss, Kering chief executive Luca de Meo — and the group’s investors — feel the same way. 

“We are starting on a new path and it feels like it’s going in the right direction,” de Meo said backstage after the show. Will it be enough?

“Ultimately, it depends on the market reaction,” he added, leaving it to time — and the thumbs of the masses — to decide Gucci’s fate.

Elizabeth Paton & Adrienne Klasa © 2026 The Financial Times.

This article was originally published in The Financial Times.