The performances conjure up the moves of stellar silver screen dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” number in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Rita Hayworth, Jane Russell and Debbie Reynolds and the films The Band Wagon, Cover Girl, Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris also serve as inspiration for the Gucci Spring-Summer 2019 #GucciShowtime campaign that “delivers maximum glitz and glamour…the mood is playful, knowing and evokes the joyful outlook of the famous musical films of the ‘40s and ‘50s,” says a press statement from the Italian luxury fashion house helmed by creative director Alessandro Michele.
The campaign was shot and directed by Brooklyn-based photographer and long-time Gucci collaborator Glen Luchford (who frequents Los Angeles as co-owner of the Rose Hotel in Venice).
Last September, Gucci presented the Spring-Summer 2019 collection in Paris at Le Palace, the 1912 music hall-turned-cinema that morphed into one of the city’s buzziest nightclubs in 1978 to rival Studio 54 in New York.
Guests Jared Leto, Faye Dunaway and Salma Hayek Pinault watched from the balcony as Jane Birkin stood up at one point to serenade the room with her 1983 song “Baby Alone in Babylone” — a song about a sad, lonely Hollywood that might call to mind filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s famed 1959 book Hollywood Babylon, detailing legendary scandals in La La Land. And that circles back nicely to Damien Chazelle’s award-winning 2016 film of that title that revived the old-fashioned movie musical.
Michele’s imaginative designs never fail to entertain. Through his signature retro lens, this collection is marked by sparkly entrance-making dresses, ostrich feathers, glittery fringe, and pops of saturated Technicolor fit for 21st century showgirls and boys. As usual, there are a medley of styles, textures and prints — classic tailoring, piles of pleating and ruffles, plaids and stripes, leopard and strawberry prints, GG logos and rhinestone bling galore — even Mickey Mouse head handbags.
Having grown up with a mother who worked as an assistant to a film executive in Italy, Michele has long been inspired by the movie industry; since his appointment as creative director of Gucci in 2015, Michele has incorporated Hollywood imagery into his collections, from Donald Duck patterns for spring 2017 to Hollywood film studio logos in fall 2018.