Gucci to Go Seasonless, Show Twice Per Year

MILAN, Italy — Gucci is going seasonless and scaling back the rhythm of its fashion shows to twice per year.

"I will abandon the worn-out ritual of seasonalities and shows to regain a new cadence, closer to my expressive call," said designer Alessandro Michele in a diary entry posted to Gucci's Instagram.

“We will meet just twice a year,” the entry continues, “to share the chapters of a new story. Irregular, joyful and absolutely free chapters, which will be written blending rules and genres, feeding on new spaces, linguistic codes and communication platforms.”

The Italian megabrand is planning a virtual press conference with select journalists for Monday.

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Gucci’s decision throws significant weight behind a growing chorus of labels, big and small, that have been pushing for significant changes to fashion’s traditional system of developing, showing, delivering and discounting collections.

Earlier in May, a group fronted by Belgian designer Dries van Noten published an open letter calling for changes to the timing of deliveries and discounts. The same week, a group of designers and executives facilitated by BoF published a proposal for "rewiring" the fashion calendar in its entirety, including the timing of buying periods and shows.

In late April, Gucci stablemate Saint Laurent announced its intention to skip Paris Fashion Week this September and reshape its schedule for showing collections for the rest of the year in a break with the conventional fashion calendar.

The French brand — which had already opted out of Paris men’s fashion week, taking its shows on the road to New York in 2018 and Malibu in 2019 — said the decision was made in response to the “waves of radical change” unleashed by the pandemic.

Covid-19 has hit the fashion industry hard. Social distancing measures and travel bans have already forced designers to rethink the way they show their collections for the foreseeable future, with London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks all going digital for the next cycle of shows.

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