February 22, 2019: We all have been or are forced to be someone we aren’t – in other words – put on masks. The human tendency to showcase what we think people want to see is often misconstrued to being fake and superficial, but there could be other reasons to it. For Milan Fashion Week 2019, Italian luxury brand Gucci presented its Fall Winter collection, opening a new perspective through masks.
The collection plays on the lines of German philosopher Hannah Arendt, where she reminds us that we choose the mask through which we appear on the world’s stage. We define our subjectivity and our ethical and political placement through this shared appearance scene. When we show ourselves on the public scene, we reveal ourselves to each other in our plural identities. The visibility space, therefore, represents the condition of possibility of being together and, at the same time, different.
The show space was characterized by a bright, elliptical wall composed of more than 120,000 LED light bulbs which was integrated with a 100-meter long mirrored runway similar to a shiny curved path. Covered from floor to ceiling with mirroring materials that endlessly reflect and refract lights and movements, the fascinating and dynamic space was illuminated by a kaleidoscope of lights.
The collection itself was characteristic of Alessandro Michele’s vintage influence, mixed with unorthodox usage of patterns, materials, colors, embroideries and silhouettes. Star War-ish ensembles ruled the runway with a variety of masks.
All images courtesy: Gucci
