On May 13, Sabato De Sarno will present his first cruise collection for Gucci in the city intrinsic to the history of the house
Is England finally becoming a fashion mecca? 15 months ago, Raf Simons hopped across the channel to present the final collection at his label with a bash in south London. More recently, Chanel journeyed to Manchester for their Métiers d’Art collection, which was inspired by the sounds of the city. Jonathan Anderson has travelled homebound for his latest JW Anderson collections. And now, in news announced this morning, Gucci is set to present its next cruise collection in London in May.
The cruise collection will be Sabato De Sarno’s first at the Italian heritage label since he took the helm of creative director in January last year. Details, including the show’s precise whereabouts, are scarce, yet the collection is bound to pay tribute to Gucci’s connection to the British capital – it was at the Savoy Hotel where a young Guccio Gucci, founder of the house, began working in 1897 as a luggage porter and liftboy. In this electronic lift – the first of its kind in London – on the slow seven-minute journeys up and down the hotel, a teenage Guccio saw up close the lifestyles of international elites spending the night at the opulent hotel, and the luggage they carried with them.
He absorbed these new ideas and a deeper understanding of the tastes and lifestyles of the upper echelons and returned to Florence to found his eponymous leather goods house in 1921. Gucci Cosmos, the touring exhibition exploring the label’s inextricable links to the city, closed on 31 December 2023.
De Sarno’s first collection arrived in September last year, marking a reset that stripped away the frills to examine the roots of Gucci, reimagining and reworking its storied history. De Sarno is set to build on these foundations in his cruise collection, which will be presented on May 13 in London, where it all began.