A New Family Portrait For Gucci
Forget the runway. Demna’s first move at Gucci’s La Famiglia Collection , a portrait series of 37 characters photographed by Catherine Opie, each one a riff on “Gucciness” itself. It’s less a campaign and more a living family album, one that welcomes the eccentric aunt, the moody artist, the heiress, and the provocateur into a single frame.
Through these portraits, Gucci redefines heritage as community. Each subject stands as an archetype, glamorous, ironic, defiantly human, reflecting how Gucci sees itself today: not a house with walls, but a home with many rooms.
Then came the short film The Tiger, unveiled on 23 September with a red-carpet premiere where models appeared as their alter egos. It blurred cinema, fashion and performance into a single act of self-invention. True to Demna’s sensibility, the moment wasn’t about spectacle for its own sake —it was about theatre as philosophy, asking what fashion becomes when personality takes the stage.
A Global Family, And Singapore’s Starring Role
The La Famiglia project spans ten flagship cities, New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, London, Milan, Paris, and Singapore, the only Southeast Asian location.
From 25 September to 12 October, Gucci Marina Bay Sands transforms into a living gallery for the collection, its mirrored interior echoing the portraits’ sense of intimacy and artifice. Within this setting, familiar icons reappear, the Bamboo 1947 bag in bold proportion, Horsebit mules refined to near-architectural precision, and archival prints revived through new tailoring.
For Singapore’s fashion crowd, it’s a brief, cinematic encounter, part installation, part cultural moment, where heritage and experimentation share the same frame.
Characters, Couture, And Controlled Chaos
Each of Opie’s portraits reveals a distinct Gucci persona. La Contessa glows in floral silk and hauteur; L’Archetipo reclaims the GG monogram as travel relic; Miss Aperitivo channels Milanese glitter with a knowing smile. They’re not mere looks, but roles, an ensemble cast performing the brand’s multifaceted identity.
Demna’s genius lies in this balancing act: staging chaos with precision. Rather than stripping Gucci of its opulence, he reframes it through modern irony. What once read as maximalism now feels like meta-luxury, aware of its own performance, yet no less beautiful for it.
If Alessandro Michele built a dream world of nostalgia, Demna rebuilds reality as theatre. The result feels both familiar and unsettling, a brand comfortable enough in its skin to laugh at its reflection.
Disruption, in Perfect Lighting
Gucci’s La Famiglia collection also marks a departure not in silhouette, but in method. There was no runway, no long build-up, just an abrupt arrival: a lookbook one day, a film the next, and retail the following week.
This immediacy, collapsing the distance between concept and consumer, is classic Demna. It’s the same instinct that turned Balenciaga into cultural commentary. But here, within Gucci’s Italian framework, the disruption feels warmer, more orchestrated. Tradition isn’t erased; it’s restaged under sharper lights.
By limiting the drop to select cities, Gucci injects the thrill of scarcity into luxury’s old-world rhythm. The result is theatre that sells, a marketing experiment disguised as a cultural event.
Curtain Call: Heritage, Irony, And Family
Gucci’s La Famiglia isn’t just a debut collection but a declaration. Gucci’s new era speaks in portraits, not proclamations —in irony, not shock. It’s about finding sincerity within performance, belonging within excess.
For Singapore, this collection lands like a visiting play —intense, brief, and unrepeatable. Step into Gucci Marina Bay Sands before 12 October, and you’re not merely shopping; you’re entering a scene that won’t be restaged again.
