Gucci to merge women’s and men’s shows

London – Although Francois-Henri Pinault, CEO of Kering and parent
company of Gucci previously shunned the decision of several luxury fashion
houses to embrace the business model, the Italian
fashion house has decided to make a major change to its catwalk format by
merging its women’s and men’s shows.

Gucci to stage single show for men’s and women’s from 2017

The step towards mixed gender fashion shows has been gaining trajection for
a number of seasons now and has just gained the backing of another luxury
fashion house as Gucci has shared plans to present its women’s and men’s
collections together in a single show from 2017 onwards, with the first show taking place at Gucci’s
new headquarter in Via Mecenate, Milan. Marco Bizzarri, CEO of Gucci, has called for an end of the separate showing
of collections during the New York Times International Luxury
conference in Versailles, France, on Tuesday. “Alessandro Michele has in fact always presented his men’s
and women’s collections together, so this is a very natural progression,” said Bizzarri in a statement on the decision.
“Moving to one show each season will significantly help to simplify many aspects of our business.”

“Maintaining two separate, disconnected calendars has been a result of
tradition rather than practicality.” The decision to merge shows sees Gucci
following in the footsteps of contemporary brands Burberry, Tom Ford and
Vetements. British fashion house Burberry was one of the first major brands
to announce its decision to merge its shows into a single event from
September onwards, which quickly saw US label Tom and french label
Vetements following in suit. However, unlike the aforementioned brands,
Gucci will not be making any changes to its current manufacturing and
product calendar and will continue to release it collections six months
after the show. Gucci confirms that it will maintain its ‘see now, buy later’
schedule, respecting the necessities of the creative and production process in luxury fashion.

Gucci to show men’s and women’s collections together

A video posted by Gucci (@gucci) on Mar 29, 2016 at 5:30pm PDT

“It seems only natural to me to present my men’s and women’s collections
together. It’s the way I see the world today,” said creative director
Alessandro Michele in a statement. “It will not necessarily be an easy path
and will certainly present some challenges, but I believe it will give me
the chance to move towards a different kind of approach to my story
telling.” Although the decision made by Gucci to merge shows may not sound as
extreme as the changes taken by other fashion houses, due to the sheer size of
Gucci and its growing popularity, thanks to Michele’s new vision, will make it
no easy task. The Italian fashion house currently counts 525 own stores across the
globe alone and reported revenues of 3.9 billion euros in 2015.

However, the unificaiton of the shows also makes sense for Gucci, as well as
other fashion labels, as consumers and designers alike begin to embrace genderless
and unisex fashion. Michele has often been praised for using men in his women’s wear
shows and women in his men’s wear shows and Louis Vuitton was recently applauded for
selecting Jaden Smith to model a skirt in a women’s wear campaign.
An exact date for the debut, unified show has yet to be set, although it seems likely
that the event will take place sometime during the women’s season, as 65 percent of Gucci’s
sales stem from its women’s division. Which raises the question what
effect the absence of Gucci will have on Milan’s Men Fashion Week?

A photo posted by Gucci (@gucci) on Mar 30, 2016 at 9:27am PDT

In the meantime, Gucci has added have been working with Italy’s
governing body of Milan Fashion Week, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana. “In the spirit
of full collaboration with the Camera Nazionale della Moda and with the aim of further
reinforcing the Italian fashion system, we will work closely with the Camera Nazionale
in aligning on a calendar that allows us to maintain the ‘see now, buy later’
schedule for our fashion shows, as it is fundamental to the full exploitation
of Gucci’s creative and production capabilities, for which the lead times are essential,” added Bizzarri.