Italian brand Gucci caused an uproar by presenting 68 twins on the runway at Milan Fashion Week. 50 girls and 18 boys surprised everyone when they appeared dressed in the same clothes as the brand.
With vibrant and contagious pieces, the brand’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, dedicated the show to his “two mothers”. The “surprise” was only revealed to the public at the end of the parade.
Named “Twinsburg”, the collection is rooted in Michele’s relationship with her mother and twin, who, according to him, were only able to understand life through each other’s presence.
“It was a personal and universal work, a reflection on otherness, on the other who lives inside and outside of us, on the relationship between the two”, Michele said.
The guests were distributed to two different rooms, divided by a panel that is a multiplication of portraits of faces in black and white, but at the end of the show the curtain went up, revealing the other half of the space, where absolutely identical models paraded.
“In the end I cried and I hardly ever do. Maybe because now doing things is more intense than before and trying to do it in a meaningful way takes a lot of passion. With politics being a disaster, war, climate change, there are those who ask me why I do this, but I think the only weapon we have is pushing to imagine something else, and it’s not about clothes or bags, it’s about human beings.” , he explained.
According to Michele, “it is not by chance that being double is powerful, when we are two we are stronger”.
Finding 68 sets of twins with the right features took months of work, but “the clothes looked more powerful in two bodies,” he added.
Before the show began, 60s icon Marianne Faithfull referenced the song “Identical Twins” by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. “We’re twins, we’re twins, yes sir. I’m me, she’s her, except when I pretend I’m her. And when we change, you can’t tell which is which. You don’t know who you’re talking to because we’re identical twins. “.
The collection is an oscillation between oriental dresses and shirts with prints, between jewelry and bourgeois bags, floral and pop stained prints, 80s references and 90s echoes, ruffled dresses and leather jackets. “It’s a powerful invitation to freedom, especially at a time like this when “the fuse of the bomb seems already lit”, concluded Michele, citing the image printed on his shirt.
