A Close Look at Gucci’s New Mini-Series

EPISODE 1: AT HOME: A morning routine, but not so traditional, in sync with Alessandro Michele‘s take on life. The first episode of “Ouverture of Something That Never Ended” — a miniseries codirected by the designer and Gus Van Sant to present the new Gucci collection — introduced the main character Silvia Calderoni, an Italian actress, writer and performer, as she indulged in her morning rituals. While the average young woman could be expected to brush her teeth in an old T-shirt or in her pajamas, Calderoni does so wearing a black tulle jumpsuit — also favored over Lululemon leggings for her asanas in front of the TV as watches Spanish philosopher Paul B. Preciado, an expert of gender studies, hold a lecture — and even address her from the screen.

In the meantime, an actual band performs music by Jamison Baken in the living room. Calderoni seems more intrigued by Gucci’s past show invitations she finds in her mailbox — as she collects them wearing a dress embellished with pearls and a pink sequined cap. She looks out from her balcony to check out passersby when her doorbell rings. It’s a friend who starts riding a bicycle inside her apartment. He never speaks, but every time he completes a full round of the flat he gives her a delicate kiss on the cheek. Billie Eilish’s new song “Therefore I Am” fills the silence.

Combining the surreal and the poetic, the first episode was peppered with references to Michele’s past collections and projects, spanning from the suit with a black bow at the neck worn by Preciado, reprising a look from his first solo men’s collection for Gucci, to the jacquard rugby polo shirt sported by Calderoni’s mysterious friend embellished with the crest of Derbyshire’s Chatsworth House, where Gucci set its cruise 2017 advertising campaign with Vanessa Redgrave.

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