The luxury sector crisis has not spared Italian brands, most of which have experienced a sharp slowdown in activity since the beginning of the year. How can sales be revived? By changing designers, of course. That was the solution adopted by half a dozen houses, including some of the biggest, who announced the names of their new stars this spring. The result of this major shake-up can be seen at Milan's Spring-Summer 2026 women's Fashion Week, held from September 23 to 29.
The most significant event concerns Gucci. As the largest Italian luxury brand, its dramatic decline has been striking (revenue, which exceeded €10.5 billion in 2022, dropped to €7.65 billion in 2024), and the choice of Demna as its new designer has sparked controversy. After his appointment was announced in March, Kering shares, Gucci's parent company, fell by more than 12%.
Expectations were therefore high for the Florentine label to pull out all the stops for Demna's debut. The Georgian designer, who only officially left his position as artistic director at Balenciaga (also owned by Kering) in July, was able to assemble his creative team at Gucci only in September. Pressed for time – since, given the economic urgency, waiting another six months to present a new Gucci collection was out of the question – he chose a less demanding format than a runway show. Demna warned that his "true" first collection would be shown in February 2026.
On Monday, September 22, the Florentine house released a first glimpse of his work through a series of photographs online featuring the characters of an Italian family. Among them, "the bombshell," perched in pointed stilettos, wore only a tiny (faux) tiger-print fur coat; "the countess" donned a long floral dress with puffed sleeves; "the mama's boy" hid in baggy jeans and an oversized, plaid coat, while "the illegitimate son" was content with just tight white briefs to cover his sculpted physique.
These 38 stylistic archetypes recycled Gucci's signature codes, whether the double G monogram on handbags, silk blouses, the Flora print rendered in sequin embroidery on train dresses, the horsebit detail on loafers and the front pockets of jeans, or the red-and-green Web stripe running across navy knit sweaters. The collection referenced different eras in the house's history, from Tom Ford's bold sensuality and Alessandro Michele's baroque romanticism to a touch of Demna's Balenciaga (his love of street wear, his sense of humor). The collection was comprehensive, comprising basic daytime pieces and glamorous evening wear.
To make its presence felt at Milan Fashion Week and generate buzz around this somewhat subdued first collection – if one judged solely by the photos – Gucci organized an event befitting its reputation. On Tuesday, September 23, the brand transformed the Place Mezzanotte, Milan's stock exchange, into a cinema. About 400 seats were set up facing a giant screen, inside a shell of exotic wood built for the occasion, so guests could watch The Tiger, a short film created for the event by Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn.
The screening took on a unique form, somewhere between the Cannes Film Festival and a fashion show. Outside the palazzo, there was a dense crowd drawn by the scale of the spectacle. Inside were celebrities, including the film's cast – Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Elliot Page, and others – as well as Kering's top executives and around twenty models wearing looks from the collection. On screen, a genuine thirty-minute film with cinematic ambition, a far cry from the many lazy clips luxury brands commission from renowned directors to promote their products.
Jonze and Reijn were given only one instruction: to use Demna's collection. Gucci clothing was of course present in The Tiger, but the story – a dysfunctional family gathered for a birthday – took precedence over aesthetics. The well-crafted film, available for free online, should find an audience and appeal beyond fashion circles. But will viewers who enjoy Moore on the verge of a nervous breakdown notice the subtlety of her wardrobe? And even if they make the connection between The Tiger and Gucci, will Demna's eveningwear inspire them to purchase a belt or a handbag? That remains to be seen. Gucci is taking a risk.
To bounce back, the Florentine house will need to quickly restock its boutiques, which, in the transition between two designers, still appear to lack products. But Gucci is starting cautiously: the collection is available only for the two weeks following the film's release and only in a selection of 10 stores worldwide (including those in Paris and Milan). Is this a deliberate strategy of scarcity or simply inefficiency in the production chain? Likely a little of both. Changing designers alone cannot resolve all of luxury's problems.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.