Alessandro Michele made a poignant statement about solidarity in a deeply divided time.
Who would think the simple act of coming together and holding hands would seem so radical? But at a time when there’s so much to lose, it was.
Alessandro Michele’s “Twinsburg” spring 2023 Gucci collection started with a straight runway show, before a center divider lifted to reveal the same one happening on the other side.
Then, 68 pairs of model look-alikes — all of them actual real-life twins — came together from opposite sides, joining hands for a final walk, making a poignant visual statement of solidarity two days before a deeply divided Italy goes to the polls in what is expected to result in a swing to the far right for the country, which could set back LGBTQ rights, among others.
It was a gorgeous, and deeply introspective, moment for Michele.
“I’m a boy who had two moms, because when I was born, the first seven years of life my mom had an identical twin. So I usually called them mom and mom,” the designer said in an interview, speaking of his late mother Eralda and late aunt Giuliana. “It was so beautiful my life with a double love,” he mused.
“So I grew up with the idea of the other one who is exactly like you but not you. It’s about humanity. It’s interesting that twins are the concrete vision of the other. It’s very attractive because it’s exactly like you. I did experience this from the outside in a deep way, constantly living with these two women who look the same, dress the same way, had the same hair, the same parfum, and it’s beautiful how in the bad moment they cared about each other. It’s very paradigmatic of our lives.…Especially now we need to care about the other that’s physically another person, but also the other you.”
Michele has been thinking about the idea for a while — since he twinned with Jared Leto at the 2022 Met Gala, and even before that when he sent models down his runway holding identical copies of their own heads. “Putting the head of another you in your arms, that means you are carrying yourself…”
Sounds like good fodder for therapy.
“Right, because when you go to therapy, you meet your other, and you must love them, because they carry all the bad things you don’t want to show and suffer for you.”
Those inner gremlins, perhaps? They were on the runway, as in the actual stuffed animals and a motif on a dress and fuzzy shoes, in collaboration with Warner Bros., of course. (No word on whether Gucci will actually be selling Gremlins, or whether there will be Gucci Gremlins…)
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