Gucci announces fashion film festival to stay relevant in changing times

The powerhouses of the fashion industry have been pondering about plans to shake up the fashion show model in the aftermath of the pandemic and climate crisis that have interrupted the typical globe-spanning circus of fashion shows.

Perhaps no fashion house seems to have thought about the dilemma as much as the Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci, whose creative director, Alessandro Michele, posted on Instagram last May a soul-searching letter announcing that the fashion brand will showcase only two collections per year from now.

Since then, he’s been refining and making improvements. As part of the changes a 12-hour livestream of the campaign photo shoot for its Resort 2021 collection was also hosted by the brand in August.

Now an exciting new announcement of what the future looks like has been made by the fashion powerhouse. A seven-day film festival called GucciFest will be launching this month. The seven-part mini-series will be co-directed by Mr. Michele and two-times Oscar nominated indie auteur Gus Van Sant. It will serve as the debut for Gucci’s latest line and is titled OVERTURE of Something That Never Ended.

However, the mini series is not all that GucciFest has to offer. It will also screen films showcasing the work of 15 emerging designers, including Ahluwalia, Shanel Campbell, Stefan Cooke, Mowalola, Bianca Saunders, Collina Strada, and Gareth Wrighton. The press release states that these designers were personally chosen by Mr. Michele.

Gucci’s film festival is a jolting, ambitious idea, an experience in and of itself that offers a reason for viewers to tune in more than once. GucciFest could act as a kind of alternative fashion week, with the company curating its own roster of designers. As a big brand this is a smart way to exercise its power and a creative way for it to engage its customers and the growing global audience.