Following two digital releases titled “La Famiglia” and “Generation Gucci,” Demna’s runway debut for the Italian house is officially here.
What does his “Primavera” vision entail, you might ask? Well, a stacked cast composed of a new generation of digital It kids that form his Gucci archetype. Vivian Wilson, Gabbriette, Alex Consani, Nettspend, Fakemink, and Amelia Gray all walked—alongside a host of runway OGs like Kate Moss, Soo Joo, and Mariacarla Boscono, whose hip-swinging saunters they are all referencing in the first place.
Vivian Wilson, who made her own official runway debut in New York in September, is part of a younger wave of online voices that are deftly navigating the digital stratosphere. Alex Consani, Gabbriette, and Amelia Gray are part of the next cohort of runway supers recognizable to any fashion fan online. Nettspend and Fakemink, alongside Liverpool rapper EsDeeKid in the audience (who is not Timothée Chalamet’s alter ego), are indicative of Gen Z/Alpha’s musical underbelly that is becoming increasingly high-fashion and mainstream. Demna’s vision is quite the hodgepodge of digital touchpoints.
These names are white-hot with cultural currency. Any headline with them will drive clicks, exactly as Demna wants. Fakemink paused on the runway to check his notifications, an unsubtle mirror for today’s third-space lacking youth. In fact, we’re all already lapping up Demna’s new dress codes through our phones—tight sparkly jeans, logomania fanny packs, daring mini dresses and all.
The mononymous designer has always been a digital chameleon who has crossed generations and genres. Someone who follows Emily Ratajkowski may not also know Nettspend, but because of Demna’s gravitational force, they certainly do now.
Prior to the show, Demna took to Instagram to write an ode to the house. (Digital messaging first, as always.) He described interpreting Gucci as a living person, one with a wild and varied past, “restless, curious, hungry to evolve.” Unsurprisingly, these characteristics can also apply to chronically online, revved-up It kids.
.JPG)