The new creative director unveils a character-driven lookbook, signaling a reset for Gucci at a pivotal moment.
Gucci unveiled Demna’s first designs as creative director with the release of La Famiglia, a lookbook photographed by Catherine Opie. Rather than waiting for the runway, the Georgian designer chose a digital-first debut, introducing a constellation of archetypal characters that frame his interpretation of the house’s identity. The move places Gucci in the midst of a shifting luxury playbook—where immediacy, narrative, and strategic surprise increasingly weigh as heavily as the runway calendar itself.
The collection features 37 looks, each embodied by figures such as La Principessa, La Diva, and Miss Aperitivo, blending archival references with Demna’s familiar tension between minimalism and theatricality. A monogrammed travel trunk opens the narrative, grounding the story in Guccio Gucci’s origins as a luggage-maker, while other pieces revisit codes like the bamboo bag and Flora print. The casting reinforces Gucci’s Italian roots, while names and styling choices signal a deliberate return to local cultural inflection. The project also foreshadows a short film showing on Tuesday evening in Milan, The Tiger, directed by Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn, extending the debut across media and audiences.
Strategically, the launch lands at a time of contraction for Gucci, with sales down 25 percent in the last quarter and heightened pressure under Kering’s reorganization. Francesca Bellettini, recently installed as president and CEO, has positioned the house for sharper creative definition, and Demna’s lookbook offers just that: a vision that is fragmented yet cohesive, designed to speak to a spectrum of consumer identities rather than a single aesthetic. These archetypes create a visualization of the Gucci crowd. The limited release of La Famiglia also underscores a commercial calculation—an early test of demand ahead of the full runway reveal.
Demna’s debut is less about a singular silhouette than about resetting perception: fragmenting Gucci into multiple characters that together hold the weight of its future. It is a measured first act, but one that signals a willingness to take risks at a moment when the brand can least afford to retreat. The future show will define the scope of this new chapter, but La Famiglia makes one point clear: Gucci’s next era will hinge not on continuity, but on reinvention.
