I watched Demna’s new Gucci show and closed my laptop still thinking about it hours later. Not because of one specific outfit, but because of how the whole thing felt. Older models walking front and center, a set styled like an actual Gucci store, and eye makeup so bold it changed the mood of every single look. It felt like the kind of show fashion used to make, before everything started looking the same.
I’ve spent 25 years doing makeup professionally, which means I don’t watch runway shows the way most people do. To be honest I don’t watch many, but this one I had to. I watch the makeup like it’s doing a job, because it usually is. When it’s actually good, it’s not decoration, it’s part of how the whole story gets told. That’s exactly what happened here.
The casting was the real headline…
The first half of the show was led by older models, women with the kind of polish and presence you rarely see given real space on a runway. And it’s also something I’ve been recently writing about….wishing brands were more age inclusive, but not in a way like it’s a tick box. Most shows still default to the same young, interchangeable faces. Watching women who actually looked like real customers, real grown women, own that runway made the whole thing feel more honest and actually very powerful. You could actually picture the clothes on a real person instead of a teenager who’ll never wear them again after the show ends.
Sam Visser did the makeup, and it was maximalist, bold eye looks on both the men and the women, set against fairly pared-back clothes. That contrast seemed deliberate to me. Makeup that bold takes real skill to pull off without it fighting the outfit. Here it didn’t fight anything, it gave every look a mood and a character before the clothes even had a chance to speak for themselves. I'm not sure if that was the case for anyone else, so I’d love to know in the comments. I’m wondering if it was just me as a makeup artist who saw it that way.
The set was designed to feel like an actual Gucci store, mirrors and all, with models stopping to check themselves out mid walk, like real shoppers instead of robots stomping around, hitting marks. That’s the kind of concept and personality shows used to have, before every collection turned into the same lineup of people just walking in a straight line. It had a point of view again…and it made me enjoy the show.
“The clothes didn’t need to work as hard, because everything around them was already doing the work.”
Honestly, the casting and the makeup took over the whole show for me, more than any single piece of clothing did. I don’t think that’s a bad thing either. I think it might be the biggest compliment a show can get, and here’s why.
