Source: Vogue
In April, Gucci and Balenciaga came together for a meta moment in fashion history. ‘Gucciaga’ (or ‘Balen-Gucci’) paved the way for fashion mash-ups in the industry. Now, ‘The Hacker Project’ is dropping anchor in stores worldwide and Vogue India’s digital cover has the inside story
How do you break the internet in 2021? You wait for Gucci and Balenciaga to enter a creative union and give the world Gucciaga.
In April, as part of the Italian luxury fashion house’s centenary celebrations, Gucci launched Gucci Aria, a ‘hacking’ of its neighbour and peer Balenciaga’s House codes. (Gucci and Balenciaga both belong to luxury goods group Kering) The result was a meta moment in the social-media driven era of fashion.
Fans caught early signs of the Guccification of Balenciaga. A screen recording of an iMessage tête-à-tête between Michele and co-creative Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga went live on Gucci’s Instagram stories, where Gvasalia confessed his first Gucci purchase in post-USSR Georgia, a bottle of Gucci Envy perfume, the only thing available to buy at the time. The duo then went on to discuss their shared love for the Tom Ford era of Gucci. We strongly concur.
When the collection hit our screens a few days later, we saw skirt suits and American-footballer shoulders for men and women (silhouettes lifted straight from the Balenciaga runway) splashed with both brand names, Balenciaga’s signature pantashoes remade in Gucci Flora print, the GG motif superimposed onto Balenciaga’s trademark 1980s futurism, and ‘BALENCIAGA’ text appearing on Gucci’s iconic Jackie handbag, and both logos flashing across a crystalline suit, like a match made in heaven.
In a cheeky way, Gucci Aria is an exploration on ideas of authenticity, counterfeiting and appropriation within the fashion industry. According to a Uswitch study (an online price comparison based in the UK) reported in Forbes India, the term ‘fake Gucci’ has 87,600 searches online, with fake Gucci belts and sneakers leading the pack. For Gucci to then co-opt some of Balenciaga’s couture-esque silhouettes is not only bold but also the start of a domino effect of hackathons. Fendace (Fendi X Versace) and Fendi X Skims, we see you. We’d also really like to see Dior and Valentino—because, why not?
“Demna Gvasalia’s designs for Balenciaga fit into the Gucci Aria collection like an inevitability, reminding us that there is a live, beating heart at the core of fashion and that it is one and the same for all,” Michele said in a statement ahead of the collection launch today.
Bringing it home with a cover shoot on the terrace of the storied Cloud 9 Cafe in Mumbai, with the Taj Mahal Hotel and Gateway of India in the horizon, is model Radhika Nair. Playing muse for the symbiotic collection, for Nair this shoot comes full circle in many ways. The model, born in Tamil Nadu, made her international runway debut with Balenciaga in 2016. Of her personalised scouting, Henry Mackintosh Thomas, casting agent for the Spanish heritage brand, had told me for the Vogue India September 2018 cover story, “Designers today are interested in characters with a look and attitude. They want to dress these characters and their stories. Radhika—and girls like her—represents this and a youth culture that’s more accepting of the way people are.”
Now, as the model and former Vogue India cover star returns to the cover in a pair of stirrup Gucci leggings and a bomber jacket with Balenciaga’s varsity veridictions, she’s ready to call India and its limitless potential home once again. “It’s so cool for Gucci and Balenciaga to say let’s merge our minds. Because business is all about collaboration, which can make it all the better,” she says, eyes on a distant gleaming sunset…
Here’s to a new dawn in fashion.
Gucci Aria will be available exclusively at Gucci, DLF Emporio, New Delhi from November 15, 2021.
