After the Screening, It’s the After-Party! Inside Gucci’s The Tiger Dinner With Alex Consani, Demi Moore, and More
Demna’s reputation as fashion’s resident mischief-maker was sealed with his opening salvo in Gucci’s reinvention. Yesterday’s lookbook drop proved the point: in less than 24 hours, it had been sliced, diced, psychoanalyzed, and picked apart with forensic obsession. La Famiglia (as the lookbook was dubbed) is a sardonic parade of Italian archetypes, from “La Bomba’s” provincial bombshell glam to “La Sciura’s” piccolo-borghese propriety, all the way to “La Milanesa,” who was swathed in pre-PETA yards of mink. But it was nothing more than the amuse-bouche, a sly prelude to tonight’s real main course: the screening of The Tiger, a short film he handed over to the surreal imaginations of Oscar-winning director Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn of Babygirl, starring Demi Moore, Edward Norton, Ed Harris, Keke Palmer, and Elliot Page, among others. Hardly a cast of newcomers—more like A-listers on speed dial.
The Tiger (Moore, in a starring titular role) prowls around as Barbara Gucci—Head of Gucci International, Chairman of California (yes, apparently that’s a job title), and full-time mistress of an immaculate façade. For her birthday, she summons her children and a very important guest (a famous Vanity Fair writer whose books are known for being tediously interminable) to the family estate.
On the surface, Barbara has it all under control: the brand, the guests, the perfect hostess routine, motherhood-on-schedule, and, obviously, the perfect new Demna-fied Gucci wardrobe. Beneath it all, she’s juggling like a circus act on a tightrope. Naturally, the evening doesn’t stick to script. One crack in the polish (and many doses of an adaptogen-fueled wellness tincture in the champagne) and suddenly the empire of appearances begins to wobble, crumbling into a sort of dystopian psychedelic nightmare, forcing the family to improvise a new version of “together.”
The screening took place in a movie theater dressed up in brown plush that whispered, yes, I’m sumptuous and expensive. Demna held court with François-Henri Pinault, new Kering CEO Luca De Meo, and Gucci’s freshly crowned CEO Francesca Bellettini, plus a row full of celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams. When asked in which of the lookbook’s characters he saw himself, Demna shot back: “Il Ragazzo. But please—not the Il Ragazzo della Porta Accanto (The Guy Next Door). And definitely not Il Figo (The Cool One). That would be a bit too much for me.”
Whether he likes it or not, Demna is Milan’s new Cool One. He said he liked Spike Jonze for the job because, “I’ve admired his work for a long time, since I saw Adaptation. And Her is probably one of my favorite movies, conceptually. And I really wanted to work with someone who could bring a strong artistic dimension to it. So it’s not an ad, it has a depth and artistic point of view.” He added, “It’s a film that has a very important and deep message.”
Dinner followed at Casa Cipriani, home to a fabulous terrace with sweeping views of Milan. Demi Moore dazzled in a sinuous siren gown dripping with golden crystals (look 37, La Mecenate—a nod both to the wealthy patron showering gold upon her protégés and to the Milan address of Kering’s headquarters, itself a modern-day fountain of riches for its designers). She remarked that “the movie weaves fashion and cinema together in such an intriguing way.” Then, flashing a smile, she confessed she couldn’t help dwelling on the curious coincidence of her own name, Moore, echoing that of Demna—especially since, in the film, she found herself inhabiting the role of a fashion designer.
Elliot Page, who delivered a magnetic performance in the film, shared his thoughts: “I see it as a strange kind of satire—tender and funny, yet trippy, sometimes even sad. Beneath the glamour, there’s an unease, a dystopian edge that mirrors our world—from Gaza to the climate crisis to growing inequality. That awareness is painful, but hopefully it sparks action and solidarity. For me, being part of this experience was pure joy. Spike has been a dear friend for years, so finally working with him was very special. And Halina is such a force—together they had this effortless, collaborative rhythm, the natural flow of two people who wrote the story side by side.”
Demna collaborated with costume designer Arianne Phillips, who said, “Costumes are always about character, and here they were integral to Demna’s manifesto of the ‘Gucci family.’ Jonze and Reijn’s script gave each character a vivid, defined life, and the clothes reinforced that individuality. Watching Demna at the fittings, shaping personas through the garments, was truly inspiring.”
To borrow a line from Alex Consani, who plays one of Moore’s models in the movie and La Bomba in the lookbook, “I’m the young, hot, rich bitch.” For an opening salvo, let’s just say Demna has our attention.