Like the fizz of Champagne, exquisitely dressed characters suddenly spill out of an apartment door. With the sun set and the day’s responsibilities put to bed, the evening is the time we let loose and come alive; night-time is the time for freedom. This shines through in the effervescence of every character that tumbles out. As we watch each person deliberate whether to head left or right, Episode 7 feels consequent of each previous episode: following the influence and lessons imposed by Gucci and Alessandro Michele, each person is finally free and educated to make their own decisions. Notably, they all turn right; towards freedom, towards expression; towards the non-binary; towards the open-ended. Are we, the viewer, also falling out of this door? If so, we must turn the same way.
Silvia Calderoni wears a three-piece suit with a buttoned gilet, pink silk shirt and Gucci Eyewear glasses. She looks strikingly beautiful yet luxuriously simplistic, the look’s clean cuts creating a prominence which can only be interpreted as a power statement. Wordlessly, Silvia Calderoni tells of her inner spark, her flare for fashion and heart of liberal expression. Gus Van Sant’s windowpane suit is equally stunning. Worn with a silk shirt and tie, the neon’s vibrancy is complimented by a nude coloured tie, creating a perfect middle ground between the avant-garde and the ordinary. Although ‘avant-garde’ seems an insult to the Gucci collection, Alessandro Michele has designed pieces which are simply too remarkable to liken to anything else.
Once we watch each person disperse into the night, Lu Han takes the spotlight. As we watch Lu Han shorten the hem of a red dress (from Alessandro Michele’s 2015 F/W collection) there feels a symbolic inference about the relativity of life. Some things require a connection with the past, a sensitivity to history and its influences; other things should stand alone, a blend only of the new and contemporary, glancing towards the future.
Episode 7 is escapism, each character breaking out into a wider, fresher perspective. As Silvia Calderoni rides around Rome on a motorbike, taking in the night scape’s beauty, she too is free. Journeying from her apartment (Episode 1) to the café (Episode 2), to the post office (Episode 3), to the Theatre (Episode 4), to The Neighbours (Episode 5) and to the Vintage Shop (Episode 6), Silvia finally exists without limitations, finding her place in the open-ended possibility of the night scene of Rome. Shadowing Silvia, swimming in the waves of Gucci, we have been awakened. As she finally takes centre stage – literally and symbolically – the series has come to an end. The audience has seen all there is, Gucci has given all they can, shared and told all they believe and now, it is down to us. Drunk on the Gucci collection and full on their purest most life-changing creativity, we are free to move on and, ultimately, live the Gucci way.
Words by Hannah Emery, Graphics by Victoria Zhao
