COMMENTARY: Milan Fashion Week – Models Carry Fake Heads On Gucci Catwalk

February 23rd, 2018

Awake Goy

Male model walks down the catwalk holding a mannequin head that is a replica of his head

“Milan Fashion Week: Models carry fake heads on Gucci catwalk,” Source: bbc.com

Models were seen cradling replicas of their own heads on the Gucci catwalk, in one of Milan Fashion Week’s most surreal shows.

The fake heads were eerily accurate, down to the hairstyles and the expressions of those walking in the show.

And the strangeness didn’t end there – Gucci’s creative director also sent models down the catwalk cradling baby dragons and snakes, and another had a third eye in the center of her forehead.

All of this was done in a space made up to look like an operating theatre, complete with a table and surgical lights.

Female model in floral dress walks down the catwalk holding a mannequin head that is a replica of her head

Close-up of female model in floral dress holding a mannequin head that is a replica of her head

Creative director Alessandro Michele said the heads were intended to represent the struggle of finding your identity, and “looking after your head and thoughts”.

Female model with a prosthetic third eye attached to her forehead

Female model in a brightly coloured dress and headscarf walks down the catwalk next to a medical bed as an audience looks on

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour was among those on the front row – wearing her trademark sunglasses.

Female models walk down the catwalk next to medical beds

Michele said the show had been “exhausting” to stage.

He had wanted to show that among the chaos and creativity of his job, there was also order and a “scientific clarity” to the work.

A female model on the catwalk clutching a prosthetic sleeping baby dragon

A female model holds a brightly coloured snake

Michele has been director of the fashion house since January 2015.

He added: “Our job is a surgical job: cutting and assembling and experimenting on the operating table.”

Two models on the catwalk, one wearing a bright blue headscarf with silver floral stitching and the other wearing a woolly hat, balaclava and glasses

Two models on the catwalk, one wearing an brightly coloured wool skirt, jacket and hat, the other wearing a brightly patterned dress and headscarf

The collection took inspiration from many different ethnicities and cultures, with Sikh turbans, South American patterns and embellished headpieces all on the catwalk.

A style note said the designs were to embody Gucci’s “pluriverse“ concept – and drew inspiration from an essay rejecting the idea of rigid boundaries.

Michele said: “Limiting fashion to something that only produces business is too easy.”