Our favorite moments of Alessandro Michele during his time at Gucci

It’s official: Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s Creative Director, exited Gucci. He started working at Gucci 20 years ago. In 2015 he assumed the role as a Creative Director, before that he was in the company’s shoes and accessories department. Michele gave new life to the brand and the fashion industry. Where the Italian fashion house was first known for its feminine and sexy designs, he provided a more edgy, vintage-inspired aesthetic. Let’s look back at some of his top moments at Gucci.

Blurring men’s and women’s fashion

The designer blurred the boundaries between men's and women's fashion and combined the two in his Fall/Winter Collection 2015-16. A collection that mixed male and female models wearing pieces that blurred gender lines. From the first big bow red silk shirt that opened the show, through the bracelet sleeve jackets, ruffled turtlenecks and sheer floral lace tops, all of them worn by men, this collection took Gucci in a new direction.

Photo: Vogue

Princetown Slippers

One of Alessandro Michele's most celebrated styles since taking the helm as Creative Director, the Princetown slippers. The footwear style has been a part of the house’s most iconic since the ’50s, but Michele defined a new era for Gucci in his debut collection in 2015. A signature horesebit detail and smooth leather finish keep this pair refined and making them perfect for smartening up more casual looks.

Photo: Vogue

Gucci goes Clinical

Gucci officially kicked off Milan Fashion week in 2018, in a fascinating and creepy way, with their Fall/Winter 2018 Collection. The runway was set up like an operating room, models carried their own severed heads, also baby dragon's were cradled down the runway. ‘’We are the Dr. Frankenstein of our lives,” said Michele. He wanted to represent the lab he had in his head. ‘’It’s physical work, like a surgeon’s.”

Twinning is Winning

One of Michele’s last collections, that he dedicated to his ‘twin mums’. His mother Eralda had an identical twin Giuliana, who the designer also saw as his mother, describing them as “magically mirrored”. At Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2023 show, 68 pairs of twins dressed in matching outfits went down the runway at Milan Fashion Week. For Alessandro, his fascination stems from “the impossibility of the perfectly identical” and “the deception of similitude”.

Photo: Gucci

Michele left the people behind Gucci, who he described as his adopted family, with a wishful message: to continue to cultivate their dreams, "the subtle and intangible matter that makes life worth living. May you continue to nourish yourselves with poetic and inclusive imagery, remaining faithful to your values," he said. "May you always live by your passions, propelled by the wind of freedom."

A new creative director has not been announced yet.