EXCLUSIVE: Gucci Sets Location for Los Angeles Runway Show
Gucci is really going Hollywood now.
Alessandro Michele will host his next runway show, “Gucci Love Parade,” Nov. 2 in front of TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, WWD has exclusively learned. And the brand is donating $1 million in grant funds as part of the deal.
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“Gucci is proud to highlight the intersection of creativity and culture within the City of Los Angeles, poised for rebirth post pandemic. As part of Gucci’s Changemakers program, powered by Gucci Equilibrium, it will provide significant support to the Los Angeles and Hollywood communities through a donation to the city’s most critical needs: homelessness and mental health,” the Italian fashion house said in a statement.
The local organizations receiving grants are YMCA Hollywood, Sole Folks, Los Angeles College Promise, My Friend’s Place, Happy Hippie Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
TCL Chinese Theatre, formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, has been a temple to film history since 1927. Norma Talmadge, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Sidney Poitier, Steve McQueen, Tom Cruise, Jane Fonda and some 200 other celebrities are immortalized with their handprints in the cement out front. The annual Oscar awards are held at the adjacent Dolby Theatre.
There is certainly plenty of sidewalk runway, too. The Hollywood Walk of Fame spans 15 blocks along the boulevard, with more than 2,700 brass and terrazzo stars marking other giants of entertainment.
This is not the first time Michele has turned to a Hollywood landmark for a venue. In November 2018, he threw a party to celebrate the launch of the Gucci Guilty fragrance at the famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the final resting place of Douglas Fairbanks, Jayne Mansfield and Rudolph Valentino, director Cecil B. DeMille and punk rock guitarist Johnny Ramone, among others.
Michele had visited the cemetery on July 24, 2016, for the annual Johnny Ramone tribute hosted by the musician’s widow Linda Ramone and her boyfriend J.D. King, whose retro-romantic style inspired the designer to create “Hollywood Forever” pieces for the spring 2017 collection.
The designer has been fascinated by Hollywood and celebrity since starting as creative director of Gucci in 2015, tapping Jared Leto for perfume ads; collaborating with Elton John on a capsule collection; outfitting Harry Styles for his transition from boy band to solo star and making him the face of Gucci tailoring; debuting the star-packed seven-part miniseries “Ouverture of Something that Never Ended” with Gus Van Sant, and on and on.
Courtesy of Gucci
He even debuted a capsule collection with the famed Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont.
For his last runway collection, “Aria,” in April, which kicked off the brand’s 100th anniversary year, Michele remade the Tom Ford for Gucci-designed red velvet suit worn by Gwyneth Paltrow to the 1996 MTV Music Awards, and paid tribute to Marilyn Monroe’s Jean Louis-designed, “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress from 1962 with a sheer blush lace and feather gown revealing a bra and thong underneath.
“I love costume directors who create different personalities,” Michele said at the time, noting how their storytelling ability has influenced his creative process.
The “Gucci Love Parade” show will coincide with the 10th LACMA Art+Film Gala, taking place Nov. 6, for which Gucci is the founding and presenting sponsor.
Later in November, Gucci will star in its own film, albeit not one it was involved in making: “House of Gucci” with Lady Gaga and Adam Driver. Opening Nov. 24, it is a dramatized version of real-life events surrounding the 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci, who was the head of the Gucci fashion house in the ‘90s and the last of the Gucci family to run the company.
The film will have its red carpet premiere Nov. 4 at L.A.’s new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
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