For Sabato de Sarno’s second womenswear collection at Gucci, he continued his sleek reinvention of the house after the eccentric maximalism of the Alessandro Michele years. Looking at De Sarno’s collections so far for the Italian house, the designer’s new Gucci takes ideas of Italian practicality and wearability and runs with them. This was a coat-heavy collection and whilst De Sarno admitted to not reinventing the wheel in the show’s notes, he did state that “making a coat is an act of craftsmanship [and] represents a meticulous journey in which each gesture can change the final result. The Fall Winter 2024 collection is an obsessive repetition of that journey.” He wants us to think about the actual act of making. How a garment can only fully make sense when you have it in your hands and you can see each stitch, each fibre.

Therefore, this is a collection of classic silhouettes. De Sarno isn’t trying to wow you through a camera, he wants to wow you in the details. So that’s where we must focus. We see the laces of the collection, the velvets and the knitwear. A motif that seems abstract but, when you really look, it becomes a geometric representation of a heron rendered in jacquard. It was a collection of sequins and fringes, bobbing to the rhythm of the models along the runway. 

Riding boots found themselves continuing above the knee, the signature horsebit being moved to the ankle area instead of proudly out front. A new bag, the GG Milano, appeared in nappa with a handle on top and a flat and perforated take on the logo. You wanted to have everything right there in your hand, you wanted to take in every detail, and, as a brand, that’s exactly where you want your products to be.