Since being appointed creative director of Gucci in March this year, Demna Gvasalia has had to confront the echoing legacy of his work at Maison Balenciaga, where he reshaped the brand in a way that will remain in fashion history. The real challenge, therefore, was to break free from his own success and start anew at Gucci.

The brand’s history is fundamental to Demna. “The amount of ingredients, it’s like a playground. I have everything. So I don’t have to focus on inventing, or trying to put my DNA into the brand to become a business as well.” Referring to the vast possibilities and resources he now has at his disposal, the creative director writes this in an article for Women’s Wear Daily, comparing himself to a chef: while at Balenciaga he often found himself lacking ingredients or raw materials, at Gucci he feels like a child at an amusement park.

The enthusiasm of the new creative director has materialized in Gucci Generation, a lookbook shot by Demna himself portraying an imaginary runway that never actually took place. Behind this series of photographs of archive pieces from different Gucci eras—from the 1970s to the Tom Ford years—lies a precise intention: from the camera angles to the lighting, from the garments to the way they are styled, everything is carefully constructed to evoke something ancient, as though this lookbook were the actual archive artifact remembering and celebrating, through a pronounced and necessary citationism, the past of the Florentine house.

Demna Gvasalia

Leafing through Gucci Generation more carefully, however, one perceives the extraordinary contemporaneity of the images and the garments, along with the unmistakable touch of Demna Gvasalia: a fashion—at least in the choice of fabrics and in the construction of the garments—that frees itself from Tom Ford’s rigid structures and opts for a more minimal approach. While the lightweight archival silk-faille tailoring mimics the look of aged fabric, the jeans forgo seams, pockets, and buttons, appearing softer; dresses are either sharply fitted or draped. The intention seems consistent: as if the garments, just like the lookbook that contains them, had felt the passing of time and become softer and lighter.

The final result is a celebration of Gucci’s past, infused with Demna’s contemporary aesthetic—a game in which citation and innovation meet and mingle, not without a touch of emotion: classic furs on bare skin and pencil skirts paired with new double-G buckle belts, silk printed in homage to archival scarves, and sunglasses, one of Demna’s signature pieces. The project presents itself as a preview of Demna’s upcoming work, which will be revealed in February 2026.

Opening image:Courtesy Gucci