Just days after Raf Simons announced the closure of his namesake brand after 27 years, Kering revealed that Alessandro Michele would be stepping down as creative director at Gucci after 7 glorious years at the helm. Confirming the news, Michele said “There are times when paths part ways because of the different perspectives each one of us may have,” he went on to say, “Today, an extraordinary journey ends for me, lasting more than twenty years, within a company to which I have tirelessly dedicated all my love and creative passion.”

The fashion industry has almost unanimously agreed that because of Michele's innovative direction Gucci has been able to flourish in a new digital and more open world. Since 2015, the 49-year-old Italian turned Gucci from fading glimmer of its Hollywood past into a vivacious, eccentric and at times beautifully ugly fashion house utilising celebrity power to bolster this image. This new Gucci was one of the main money makers for French luxury brand conglomerate Kering, bringing in around 10 billion euros in 2021. Unfortunately, something great can never last forever and sales have slowly begun to dip (although, not massively.) Fashion is an ever-moving machine, and Gucci is simply a cog that must keep up with what’s demanded of it and, it would seem, that means something new and fresh. Instead of sitting on the news, which is sad to many, let’s take a moment to reflect on Michele’s tenure and the works of gold he created. In the same way that people adore the collections of Tom Ford at Gucci, Michele’s term will surely be lauded in the same way for decades to come.

If there is one celebrity that is most closely associated with Alessandro Michele’s Gucci in popular culture, it’s Harry Styles. The pair began their working relationship back in 2015 when Styles arrived at the American Music Awards in a white and blue floral suit that almost broke the internet. One Direction fans were blown away and social media users were outraged, ‘WTF is Harry Styles wearing?’ said Page Six. As Styles embarked on a solo career, Michele gradually began to dress the British singer more regularly. Today, Styles is almost never not seen in Michele’s designs styled by Harry Lambert. It will be interesting to see whether Styles will continue his relationship with the fashion house following Michele’s departure.

Another celebrity that has regularly glowed in Michele’s designs is actress Jessica Chastain who wore a radiant emerald green gown from the brand to win her Academy Award earlier this year. While Harry Styles fits the androgynous, eccentric and gender non-conforming aspects of the brand, Chastain has kept with the glamorous, almost Old Hollywood, silhouettes and textures proving that there are certainly two halves that create a Gucci whole. Last month, Chastain featured in the Gucci Timepieces campaign.

While Michele’s Gucci will be remembered via celebrity, his runway collections also never failed to spark conversation. Back in September of this year at Milan Fashion Week, Michele chose to focus his show around the concept of twins. “Welcome to Twinsburg”, read an email sent from Gucci moments before the show began, before 68 pairs of twins emerged onto the runway. “I am the son of two mothers”, the show notes stated, Michele’s mother was a twin herself. Another well-known runway back in February 2018 not only had models carrying little baby dragons down the runway but some models carrying almost identical copies of their own heads. Morbid? Yes, but not without reason. "I was in the crazy idea that when you are a teenager you are growing," Michele later said. "You have to care about your personality. It was like a way to say that you were carrying yourself. It is not easy, you know? Because sometimes you try to be someone else." Michele employed artisans at the Rome-based factory Makinarium to bring life to the heads, which took six months to create through the use of moulds, 3D prints, and scans.