How Gucci Turned Fashion Into Fantasy

The storied luxury houses and luggage-makers of Paris and Milan blend their deep historical imprints with expert craftsmanship and constant reinvention. More contemporary labels, almost out of necessity, carve their paths through subversion of the norms. Others perform alchemy, transforming clothing into fantasy. Though it incorporates aspects of all these categories, Gucci is a master of the latter.

It’s impossible to look at Gucci’s current output under Alessandro Michele and not see the element of theatrics which runs through his work. But that kernel runs much deeper; Michele simply pushed it to its highest expression. Now in its 100th year of operation, the idea of transforming the material into something transcendent, of creating a world through creation, is one of the most enduring threads in the label’s history.

Here’s a brief history of how it happened.