For his first Fall/Winter 2026 show at&nbsp;Gucci,&nbsp;Demna presents a show where Italian heritage engages in dialogue with radical sensuality and an assumed pragmatism.

There are houses we inhabit, and others we embody. For <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gucci-the-tiger-film-demna-debut-campaign-demi-moore" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Demna</a>, Gucci is not just a brand: it's a living being, riddled with contradictions, dramas, and excesses, a character aware of its wild past and eager to write its next chapter. This first Fall/Winter 2026 show thus marks a birth&mdash;not a rupture, but a metamorphosis.
In a monumental, museum-like setting, surrounded by marble sculptures, the designer immediately establishes his heritage vision. The space evokes Italian memory, the memory he explored in Florence, from the workshops to the rooms of the Uffizi Gallery, where the contemplation of Sandro Botticelli's Primavera and The Birth of Venus overwhelmed him. From this emotion emerges a collection imbued with the Renaissance ideal of proportion, desire, and beauty.
The show opened with a seamless white mini-dress, a second skin of knitwear, a technical as well as aesthetic manifesto. The body was central, sculpted, exalted. Male silhouettes, molded in ultra-fitted T-shirts, displayed athletic torsos; evening looks featured lace, lurex satin, and suggestive cuts. On the catwalk, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/kate-moss-jean-desses-little-black-dress-frank-sinatra-party-1995" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kate Moss</a>, Emily Ratajkowski, Alex Consani, Sydney Carlson, and&nbsp;Vittoria Ceretti embodied this glamorous tension between decadence and control.

True to his penchant for juxtaposing different aesthetics, Demna reinterprets established codes. The visible thong&mdash;a nod to the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/tom-ford-films-cry-to-heaven-movie-release-cast-date-trailer-plot-anne-rice-adele-acting-debut" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Ford</a> era&mdash;reappears, repurposed on low-rise leggings. More than ever, the hip is on display: sexy, yes, but with an almost architectural precision. Tailoring, meanwhile, becomes fluid, almost liquid, in ethereal fabrics that move with the body. The same jacket can be styled with a skirt, leggings, or classic trousers: the wardrobe becomes a system.
Obsessed with archetypes, the designer hybridizes styles: tracksuits transformed into "trackdresses," leggings fused to trousers, jackets and tops welded into a single, ultra-fitted piece. Even the shoes themselves mutate, somewhere between sneakers and shoes streamlined like a sports car's body. The product's pragmatism&mdash;so dear to Gucci&mdash;doesn't preclude either audacity or emotion.
The materials tell this story of duality. Feather embroidery framing the face, fitted bubble jackets, intarsia shearling, leathers of almost sensual suppleness: everything contributes to a new lightness. Invisible heat-sealed edges, curved hems, and seamless constructions testify to rigorous technical development, dedicated to comfort and clean lines.

Ancient references surface in silhouettes of contemporary Adonises, Greek-inspired draping held back on skater T-shirts, a white dress evoking Venus rising from the sea foam. Then comes the celebration: embroidered ensembles worn barefoot, minidresses slit to the waist, a backless dress revealing a white gold GG thong studded with diamonds. Drama, passion, excess&mdash;Gucci in all its human intensity.
The accessories complete this narrative. The Bamboo 1947 bag, reinvented in a streamlined form with a supple leather handle, converses with minaudi&egrave;res from the archives. The minimalist and hybrid Manhattan sneaker sits alongside the soft Giovanni and Cupertino loafers. Even the fanny pack, once a caricature, is reborn as a crossbody bag, worn flat against the chest, while carrying a bag in the crook of the arm&mdash;a gesture of the 2000s&mdash;is once again becoming a symbol of style and emancipation.
Demna makes no secret of it: he doesn't want an intellectual Gucci, but a Gucci that is felt. Heritage and fashion are not opposed; they feed off each other. This inaugural collection lays the foundations for a language destined to endure&mdash;a universe populated by archetypes, tensions, and desires, where luxury is both sensual and pragmatic.

For Gucci Fall/Winter 2026, Demna Orchestrates a Clash of Bodies and Heritages

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