Gucci is breaking with the conventional fashion calendar and has announced that it will go seasonless, scaling back to show twice a year.
The brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele made the announcement in a diary entry posted to Gucci’s Instagram. “I will abandon the worn-out ritual of seasonalities and shows to regain a new cadence, closer to my expressive call,” the designer wrote. “We will meet just twice a year, to share the chapters of a new story. Irregular, joyful and absolutely free chapters, which will be written blending rules and genres, feeding on new spaces, linguistic codes and communication platforms.”
The Kering-owned megabrand is the second luxury brand, after Saint Laurent, to hint at wider changes in the fashion industry as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Gucci’s decision throws significant weight behind the push for a change to fashion’s traditional system of developing and showing collections.
Gucci is planning a virtual press conference for Monday, where it will share more information about its decision.
Earlier this month, a group fronted by Dries Van Noten published an open letter, calling for a transformation of the fashion industry. And in late April, Gucci stablemate Saint Laurent already announced it was going to skip Paris Fashion Week in September to reevaluate its fashion calendar.