When is a museum like the sea? It sounds like the start of a riddle, but the affiliation between the two was the root of Sabato de Sarno’s second men’s show for Gucci. The answer, FYI, was the idea of both as open spaces, and the notion that those spaces allow rendez-vous, bringing together people from all walks of life. ‘Incontri’ – encounters – was the word De Sarno used, and hence he chose to show in the halls of the Triennale Milano – linking nicely with the Cruise show staged in Tate Modern last month.
De Sarno had been reading the Pulitzer prize-winning book Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan – a memoir of an obsession, the idea of surfing not as a sport but as a life’s calling. And surfing is what it seems everyone does these days, not so much the actual activity but through social media, the internet, daily lives – surfing from idea to idea in ceaseless motion. Surfing therefore formed a literal inspiration for De Sarno – scuba soles bottomed shoes, while the prints featured dolphins, hibiscus flowers, banana leaves and surfers themselves in seemingly infinite repeat, in unreal, sun-drenched colours influenced by John Baldessari. Those were contrasted with slick, long-line tailoring, contradicting short-shorts that bottomed most outfits. Again, unexpected encounters, and a freedom of the body that spoke of the beach rather than the city – although maybe during his Cruise show prep, De Sarno saw exactly how Londoners react when sun hits our shores and cast abandon (and clothing) to the wind.
This Gucci collection was direct, immediately appealing – hot colour, vibrant print, easy jewel-like accessories in pillowy padded gloss leather in brilliant sorbet colours. But there was more than immediately met the eye. The surfaces of polos seemed to break apart and vibrate, crafted as they were from minute beaded fringe, replicating the ebb and swell of tides. Others were knitted with intarsia of palettes, glistening as if they were wet and drying in the sun.
There was an interesting idea at foot – not breaking tradition, but starting from tradition to seek the new. Everything was built on Gucci’s heritage: the horsebit, the artisanship of leather, and even the surf-and-scuba slant, which reminded me of when Tom Ford designed Gucci double-G branded flippers and snorkelling gear in the late 1990s. The luxury landscape has shifted seismically since then, and people aren’t grasping after gimmicks. Rather, what they want are beautifully-made clothes with meaning, that can somehow help make their lives better. “I hope that people feel free and welcomed in my clothes,” said De Sarno, simply. Could there be a purer aim than that in making fashion?