Gucci by Demna Gvasalia

The world created by Demna Gvasalia (1981) throughout his trajectory is shaped more by observation, and of course social critique, than by aspiration. Demna does not construct his fashion from the concept of aspiration, but from an observation marked by his personal experience in Georgia. His biography, traced by forced displacement, migration and the experience of being a dissident body, functions as a pillar for understanding his creative work.

Born in Georgia and forced to flee his hometown during the war in Abkhazia, Demna grew up understanding clothing as a tool for survival: protection, belonging and the affirmation of social roles. This precocious and distinctly Simmelian reading explains his interest in what he himself has defined as “sociological uniforms”: garments that dictate hierarchies, communicate authority or delineate groups.

Before studying fashion, he trained in economics. This is not merely anecdotal. In his work, material intuition and creativity intertwine with structural awareness: how something is produced, how it is sold, how desire is generated. At the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, he learned to work directly with fabric, volume and proportion. There, the constants that would define his entire trajectory were already visible: instinctive patterns and designs, decontextualised silhouettes and a fluid relationship between deconstruction and functionality.

After passing through Martin Margiela and Louis Vuitton, Demna founded Vetements with his brother Guram and a collective of friends. The project emerged as an explicit social critique and a celebration of those previously excluded from the sector. His shows and events in clubs, reused garments, subverted patterns and non-normative casting established him as a voice of divergence within the industry. His discourse was personal, direct and stripped of romanticism, rejecting the friction of the fashion system as it was configured. Vetements introduced a post-Soviet, brutalist, Bauhaus and deliberately uncomfortable aesthetic that reconfigured the language of contemporary luxury and continues to shape its influences today.

His tenure at Balenciaga marked an entire generation, creating an unmistakable streetwear and dissident aesthetic. Here, his personal vocabulary was amplified. Demna explored the heritage of Cristóbal Balenciaga in unexpected ways, subjecting it to a certain tension. His Balenciaga was recognisable for excessive tailoring, oversized sneakers and everyday pieces pushed to their technical and conceptual limits. His decade at the head of the maison restored a deliberately provocative air not seen since the era of McQueen.

His appointment at Gucci is a strategic move on the part of the Florentine house. Demna is a high-level cultural editor, working from social questioning and listening closely to youth.

On 22 September 2025, Gucci commanded media attention with Demna’s first collection. Launching his debut the day before the start of Milan Fashion Week was no coincidence. It was a calculated move to secure the spotlight in this new era of Gucci. Titled La Famiglia, it is not a collection in the traditional sense, but a window into Demna’s world for Gucci. His first act takes the form of a family album: a lookbook that resembles a living archive, a prelude to the February 2026 show. The underlying question is clear: who is Gucci today? What space does its identity occupy in the collective imagination?

Demna’s answer unfolds through archetypes. Almost literary figures, like characters from a tale, bring the collection’s looks to life under names such as Miss Aperitivo, La Cattiva, La Bomba, L’Influencer and La Incazzata. Each character represents a facet, an attitude inherent to Gucci and to the multitudes it contains. Each one condenses a way of inhabiting luxury, and together they compose a new genealogy for Gucci, with new paths to explore. There is no clear or imposed hierarchy. There is spectacle, amusement, humour, irony and an opulence intrinsic to the house. The campaign, photographed by Catherine Opie, operates as another narrative device within this new story: frontal portraits in which fashion embodies coherent yet distinct identities. The culmination of the campaign was a short film presented during Milan Fashion Week. The Tiger, directed by Oscar winner Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn, features figures such as Demi Moore and Kendall Jenner.

Formally, Demna works through oxymoron. Different eras of the house coexist within a single look, translated into Gvasalia’s language. Marabou feathers, emblematic of the Michele era, appear stripped of baroque excess, applied to caftans and 1980s coats. Formal minimalism coexists with the memory of Gucci’s most sensual 1990s phase: black leather, sheer fabrics, leather trench coats and fitted shapes tracing the body. The casting brings back familiar faces and designer favourites, from Mariacarla Boscono to Alex Consani.

Night emerges as the dominant setting. The daytime, equestrian or quiet Gucci recedes, and a contemporary dolce vitaaesthetic surfaces: sequins, animal print, pronounced shoulders, mini dresses and statement jewellery. In parallel, historical codes function as a reassuring anchor point. The iconic Bamboo 1947 bag reappears redrawn, the Horsebit moves from footwear to details and jewellery, the Gucci Flora print returns, and the GG Monogram becomes central once more. Logomania speaks of an iconic past while signalling a new era for the house.

Demna’s pre-season collection for Gucci immersed us in a new stratum of Gvasalia’s world. It should not be forgotten that Gvasalia was born in the 1980s, living through the Gucci of Tom Ford at full force. In this collection, that experience and nostalgia appear as flashes of a show that never took place.

If La Famiglia presented itself as a collective portrait of archetypes and temperaments, a “family” as a map, Generation Gucci shifts the perspective. Demna’s second instalment for Gucci also arrives in lookbook form, but this time it is presented as if it were a chronicle of an imaginary runway show, a historic presentation “that never happened”, photographed by the designer himself. The interplay of imagery and references to the Tom Ford era, one of the most celebrated periods in fashion, appeals to a sense of familiarity and rebellion within the house.

Among these references are the intense spotlight creating chiaroscuro, the dark backdrop, silhouettes conceived for the night, sharp tailoring worn on bare skin, satin finishes, plunging necklines and aviator sunglasses. Over this nostalgic core, historical house codes are layered: seventies references in suede, equestrian scarves and bow blouses, alongside a series of contemporary elements that position Demna’s Gucci as a continuum that transcends temporality. Demna’s Gucci is present, past and future. It does not choose one over the other, but moves through continuity with each proposal. According to his own notes, the collection is framed as an investigation into archival codes, combining “generations” of product and image within a single aesthetic form.

The selected fabrics reinforce the idea of past and decadence that Gvasalia commands in his work: silk, suede, fur, feathers and shearling over transparent bases and linings, statement coats with lightweight construction. Demna formulates it directly, in his own language: for him, luxury is measured in comfort and lightness, not in restriction.

The closing gestures arrive in the purest “Demna-fied” manner: men’s ballet flats inspired by Gucci Valigeria luggage, studded loafers and a reimagined Jackie 1961 alongside the return of the Gucci Dionysus bag. While La Famiglia reorganised Gucci’s DNA through archetypes, Generation Gucci proposes it differently: an engaging mix, less ironic, that builds anticipation for his February show.