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More than a year into Alessandro Michele's tenure as creative director of Gucci, the industry's fascination with the designer shows no signs of waning. His decisive vision for the 95-year-old brand has generated plenty of critical (and commercial) interest, while the man himself remains mysterious. Photos of Renaissance art, newborn lambs nestled in hay, and old books fill his personal Instagram. His look is a potent combination of full beard and luscious Coachella girl hair. He attended the Oscars with Jared Leto.
Here to quench our thirst for more Michele is Net-a-Porter's Porter magazine, which prominently features Michele in its summer issue. Four of his "devotees" — "Diary of a Teenage Girl" actress Bel Powley, Chloë Sevigny, the artist Rachel Feinstein, and Florence Welch — also appear in the editorial to provide testimonials about his work. As Powley puts it, Michele's designs are "the perfect combination of sexy and cute." Incidentally, that's a near-exact quote from Steve Carell in the movie "Crazy, Stupid, Love." No shade. It's a great film.
Michele, meanwhile, has his own thoughts about the state of fashion, and specifically about the Minimalist Cool Girl aesthetic espoused by houses like, say, Céline. "In recent years, fashion has taken itself as inspiration, and it has been stimulated only by itself," he says. "We decided that fashion was something slick, perfect, symmetric, but now people feel the desire to express their individuality and they don't want to fit the mold anymore."
Second degree burnnnnnn. Fashion lemmings, delete your Instagrams and open your eyes. The future has arrived, and it's wrapped in a sparkling trompe l'oeil bow.