Gucci Fall 2012 Review
Photos: Imaxtree
Looks from the Gucci Fall 2012 runway.
SHOW: Gucci (See the full collection.)
HAIR: Luigi Murenu
MAKEUP: Pat McGrath
ACCESSORIES: Flat, knee-high crocodile boots, tooled leather clutches and hefty, unstructured hold-alls, sheer black stockings, lots of kohl
OVERALL TAKEAWAY: Gucci turns to the dark side
Gucci goes goth—and why not? Tom Ford did it ten years ago to the season, and Frida Giannini has no qualms about tackling one of the heftiest legacies of contemporary fashion. Her Gucci goth was naturally of the most luxurious type, swathed in velvet, leather and karakul lamb, capacious trousers tucked into knee-high crocodile boots. All those textures were rendered in a refined color palette of claret, emerald and lots of inky black. In fact, the latter became something of a palette, outfits mixing jacquard, wool, fur and leather for textural interest without the distraction of color.
Giannini's source of inspiration was nineteenth-century romantics—after all, Baudelaire did coin the phrase "the black prince of elegance," and every prince needs a princess (the British royal family have taught us that). It's also an explanation for the slight historical feel to some of this garb, the surfeit of capes for example or the off-the-shoulder swirling number in deepest evergreen that looked as if it had been dragged straight off Millais' Ophelia. Pump up the color saturation to brilliant peridot, devore the velvet and slit it to the waist, and you suddenly have Romanticism done Gucci style. That is, with plenty of bang for your buck, too.
SEE THE FALL 2012 RUNWAY COLLECTIONS
