For Pre-Fall 2019, the Gucci gang is transported to the ancient city of Selinunte for Alessandro Michele’s imagining of the classical symposium – an after-dinner festival of music, dance and love
Recent Gucci collections have seen Alessandro Michele mine the realm of ancient antiquity: in February, the house’s show invitation took the form of a mask of the head of ancient Greek deity Hermaphroditus; and in March, the brand announced that its next Cruise show would be held in a Roman archeological museum on the city’s Capitoline Hill (following a previous Cruise collection shown in the ancient Roman burial ground of Alyscamps, Arles). Today, Gucci has revealed its latest Glen Luchford-shot campaign, which sees Michele’s Gucci gang span centuries once again, assembling in the ancient Greek city of Selinunte, founded in the 7th century BC in Sicily.
According to the house, inspiration for the Pre-Fall 2019 campaign came via the ‘classical symposium’, an after-banquet gathering where people would sing, dance, listen to poetry and engage in lengthy conversations during ancient Hellenistic times. In typically idiosyncratic style, Michele reimagines this as “a contemporary fresco of freedom and expression in which the antique becomes the propeller of the present,” clashing the counter-cultural groups of Los Angeles’ Venice Beach – hardcore punks, rollerbladers, bodybuilders and surfers – with the historic beachside setting.
Those wishing to take part in the bacchanalian festivities themselves are able to do so via Gucci’s app: a digital photo booth will allow users to place themselves in the setting of the advertising campaign on screen. Bonus clips from the accompanying film – soundtracked by Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit – can also be found on the app, or by scanning QR codes in your nearest Gucci store’s windows.