Gucci Cruise Show Goes the Understated Route

The fashion flock is not easily flappable, but late last week it was left relatively speechless—in a good way, that is—by the 2016 Gucci cruise show, presented by the company’s new creative director, Alessandro Michele.

In the past couple of years, European brands showing their cruise collections—the ready-to-wear that comes between the larger spring and fall seasonal collections—have been playing an international game of one-upmanship.

In May of this year alone, Chanel took its cruise collection along with Gisele Bündchen, Kristen Stewart and Tilda Swinton to Seoul; Dior, Marion Cotillard and Dakota Fanning went to le Palais Bulles, a futuristic “bubble palace” somewhere between Cannes and Monaco that belongs to Pierre Cardin; and Louis Vuitton staged an over-the-top event at the Bob Hope estate in Palm Springs with actresses Marisa Tomei, Michelle Williams, Kanye West and Selena Gomez, followed by a nighttime Vuitton carnival.

On Thursday, Gucci and Mr. Michele went an understated route. The celebrities at Gucci’s show were few and far between. Dakota Johnson and her “50 Shades of Grey” director Sam Taylor-Johnson mostly blended into the fashion editor crowd at the Dia space on Thursday morning. The only real extravagance of this particular event was the closing of West 22nd Street between 10th and 11th avenues so that models could step from the south side of 22nd Street to the north side, so it literally appeared as if they were walking out of every day Manhattan life and onto the runway. It also helped that the colorful clothes were universally considered stunning.

A dinner party that evening was equally simple and unfussy. It took place at B Bar on East Fourth Street, a location that is no longer what in-the-know New Yorkers would call a hot spot. Beige, B Bar’s long-held Tuesday night party, came to end in 2011, and now the restaurant attracts lots of families on weekends whose children run around the place’s relatively wide terrain.

There were no Gucci-shaped pretzels, or Gucci-vending machines, or Gucci-branded bumper cars. Instead, to spruce things up, Gucci brought in Roberta’s and a wood-fire pizza oven from Bushwick to cater the evening. That means there were lots of unpretentious pizzas being served, alongside some fresh salads, charcuterie plates and, for dessert, a mixed berry pavlova.

The party was filled with regulars on the New York scene—again, no big movie stars sucking the excitement out of the room—which gave the evening the feel of a throwback to a time in New York when parties were parties instead of large scale photo-ops. Among the guests were lots of fashion editors as well as folks like Harley Viera-Newton, Leigh Lezark, Sabine Heller, production designer Happy Massee, Jefferson Hack, Arden Wohl, Joseph Altuzarra, Laura Love, Atlanta de Cadenet Taylor, Laura Love and Karen Elson, who gave a short, acoustic performance in a side room.

“It feels like we’re at Bungalow 8,” said Jessica Joffe, referring to a long-gone Amy Sacco club in West Chelsea that attracted a crowd of regulars on a weekly basis. “This is a Thursday night—a weekday party—and everyone came, and they’re happy to be here.”

Mr. Michele said that he wanted to show in New York because he loves the city. “It’s so beautiful and so young and so fresh,” he explained, as he embraced various well-wishers who came to congratulate him on that morning’s show. “When I saw the collection on the street, I loved it. It’s so cinematic here. It’s like being in a movie.”Read more here:www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses-perth