Gucci's Cool Girls on the Catwalk in London

For his first Cruise 2025 fashion show, Sabato De Sarno chose London, an important city to the history of Gucci, the Italian brand. De Sarno offered a wardrobe tailored to fit this era, which plays on contrasts. A certain idea of casual luxury.

Each Catwalk is a challenge. A creative challenge. Mediatic. Strategic. Each time you have to take up the glove. With an uncertain, even tense, economic context (the house of Gucci, of the Kering group, showed declining turnover in the first half of 2024), the task is even more sensitive. For his first cruise show, Gucci's new artistic director, Sabato De Sarno, who arrived in January 2023, seemed to want to break away from this pressure. Marching in London, far from Italian lands, in addition to the distance, probably encouraged this step.

Check out Sabato De Sarno fist Gucci collection in our article Gucci Takes the Direction of Precise and Streamlined Chic

The Links between Gucci's founding and London

The history between the English capital and the Italian house is however old. In 1899, a young man named Guccio Gucci went to work as a porter at the Savoy Hotel in London. During this period, he observed the hotel's wealthy clientele, their refined tastes, what they wore... This art of travel inspired him to the point of returning home to Florence to start his own accessories business in leather.

In 1921, he founded the house of Gucci. Almost a hundred years later, Sabato De Sarno chose to unveil its Cruise collection in London. Subtle way of drawing Ariadne's thread of the founder of the Italian house, to better reveal his own vision. Moreover, it was not at the legendary Savoy that this cruise collection was presented but within the gigantic Tate Modern, located on the banks of the Thames, a place dear to the heart of the Italian designer. “The return to the origins of the house is motivated by the desire to imbue oneself with its particular essence, its unlimited capacity to bring together contrasts and make them speak,” emphasizes Sabato De Sarno. “We are here to celebrate this spirit. For me, Tate Modern, a unique cultural arena, is the perfect intersection for this.”

The art of contrast

In the concrete maze of the museum, Sabato de Sarno and his teams imagined a setting where nature would reclaim its rights over the city, coexisting in a poetic urban garden. This entire collection called We Will Always Have London plays on contrasts. The minimal and the lush. The radical and the subtle. The solid and the fragile. “I wanted to reveal another part of me,” says the designer. “More romantic, more contradictory. I like to take hold of something that we think we know and free myself from its rules. Bring it towards its opposite and find its harmony.”

The entire collection tends towards this quest: finding harmony in dichotomy. Evening meets everyday life, sartorial merges with workwear. Long evening dresses in delicate chiffon are worn with large oversized leather jackets, slit skirts embroidered with 3D flowers are mixed with long denim jackets. Strict suits are adorned with wild chamomile patterns. Long coats become precious garments adorned with sparkling beaded fringes.

Contemporary 70’s

The spirit of the 70’s is revisited in silhouettes modernized by the play on proportions with suede jackets on vaporous bow shirts worn with wide patchwork jeans and little horsebit ballerinas or with young girls' micro shorts. Sabato De Sarno brings together “Brit” and Italian styles to better design a contemporary cool girl. She strolls in a transparent organza blouse over white jeans draped with beaded fringes that dance with each step. She asserts herself in a total look, a rigid canvas midi skirt and an oversized Malabar-colored jacket worn with creepers.

Dua Lipa, Kate Moss and Demi Moore in the Front Row

The whole thing expresses a certain idea of casual luxury with a wardrobe designed to be worn every day by today's girls. A pragmatic vision some would say, but fashion cannot, and should not, be reduced to a demonstration of the spectacular, of improbable (and sometimes unwearable) extravagances. Sabato De Sarno reaffirms its strategy with this collection which aims for harmony. From Salma Hayek to Demi Moore via Debbie Harry or the English stars Dua Lipa, Kate Moss and her daughter Lila, there were in any case numerous celebrities to applaud the show.