Inside Demna’s Vision: How ‘The Tiger’ Redefines Gucci’s Legacy
By Mackenzie Richard Zuckerman
Milan’s fashion week calendar had no Gucci runway this season — but it hardly needed one. Instead, the house unveiled The Tiger, a short film with the kind of cultural impact most brands can only hope to achieve. Directed with biting wit and starring Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Ed Harris, Elliot Page, Keke Palmer, Alia Shawkat, Julianne Nicholson, Heather Lawless, Ronny Chieng, Kendall Jenner, and Alex Consani, the film blurred the lines between satire and social commentary. At its Milan premiere, whispers circled the theater: this was not just another fashion presentation.
Backstage before the screening, Demna was reflective.
“When we decided to do a film, the question was: what’s the message?” he said. “For me, it was about our obsession with perfection — being the perfect son, designer, husband, friend. It’s impossible, and the pursuit only frustrates us. The truth is in imperfection — in making mistakes, not always looking good. That’s the substance of being human.”
That ethos played out in the film’s premise — an editor visiting a wealthy, eccentric family for dinner, only to have their drinks spiked, unleashing unvarnished truths in a drug-induced haze. Demi Moore, who presides over the dinner as matriarch and, symbolically, owner of California itself, delivered a performance that sharpened the satire.
For Demna, the project was also research. “Gucci has always been in my head,” he admitted. “I know the Tom Ford years, Alessandro’s years. But there are so many codes I never had access to, especially in ready-to-wear. I needed to learn and understand them so I can build my aesthetic here. The collection shown yesterday was part of that process.”
“Initially, the research felt a bit daunting,” Demna noted –
“But as I delved deeper, I realized that Gucci’s legacy is actually quite fun and intelligent. That duality — the wit and the intellect — is what drew me in. To see how Guccio Gucci began and how this house became what it is today is mind-blowing.”
With The Tiger, Gucci managed to capture exactly that: an interplay of intellect and irony, tradition and irreverence, imperfection and allure. In an industry where presentations often blur together, this one stood out — a reminder that storytelling can be just as powerful as a runway.