Demna’s arrival at Gucci was as swift as it was seismic. After Sabato De Sarno’s departure, the Georgian designer stepped into the role of creative director in March and wasted no time making his mark. His debut came through La Famiglia, a collection conceived not as a runway show but as a visual manifesto. Framed as a study of “Gucciness,” it presented Gucci not just as a brand but as a shared language and state of mind. By opening with a lookbook instead of a catwalk, Demna underscored his instinct for disruption and reframed the meaning of a debut. From the outset, he established that his Gucci would prioritise narrative over tradition, identity over conformity, and culture over routine. The anticipation may have been brief, yet the impact was immediate, marking the beginning of a daring new chapter in the house’s history.
That Monday morning, Gucci unveiled La Famiglia in the form of a tongue-in-cheek family album. Catherine Opie photographed 38 archetypes, each presented with an ornate frame and a title that captured a facet of Gucci’s identity. L’Archetipo nodded to the brand’s Florentine origins with a monogrammed trunk, while Incazzata gave Mariacarla Boscono a fiery sixties persona in a bamboo bag and red coat. Ragazza leaned into Gen Z rebellion in black crocodile and knee-high boots, while La Bomba radiated feline energy in bold stripes. From La Principessa’s feathered gown to La Cattiva’s femme fatale elegance, the portraits resembled casting shots for an imagined drama. Through these characters, Demna created not just a fashion collection but a theatrical universe, one that made glamour, provocation, and play inseparable from the clothes themselves.
The family extended beyond these figures to archetypes of pleasure, aspiration, and refinement. Miss Aperitivo lived for indulgence, while L’Influencer mirrored the obsessions of a social-media-driven era. Italian sophistication appeared in La Mecenate, La Contessa, Sciura, and Primadonna, who channelled patrons and doyennes of style. Principino embodied charisma at the centre of attention, highlighting Gucci’s ability to transform wearers into icons. Together, the characters formed a chorus that mirrored contemporary society, spanning from frivolity to gravitas. By constructing these roles, Demna positioned Gucci as a storyteller of culture, one that dresses more than bodies. The house instead clothed identities, ambitions, and contradictions. In doing so, Demna elevated fashion into narrative art, reminding audiences that to wear Gucci is to inhabit a role within its ever-expanding family.
Heritage also played a central role in the collection. Demna reinterpreted the Bamboo 1947 bag with new proportions suited to modern life, while the Flora motif returned in both its classic vibrancy and darker nocturnal variations. The GG monogram became a maximalist statement, stretching from tailored suits to loafers in head-to-toe repetition. Silhouettes moved between extremes: feathered opera coats and high jewellery embraced grandeur, while sheer hosiery and transparent menswear embodied sensual restraint. Eveningwear entered unexpected contexts, including body-conscious sets and black-tie swimwear that twisted la dolce vita into a contemporary mood. These choices demonstrated Demna’s fascination with contradiction. He balanced excess and minimalism, heritage and disruption, glamour and subversion. The result was a family of designs that lived within tensions rather than resolutions, a collection that made boldness itself the house’s defining language.
The following night, Gucci transformed Palazzo Mezzanotte into a cinema for the premiere of The Tiger. Directed by Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn, the thirty-minute film placed La Famiglia into motion. Demi Moore starred as Barbara Gucci, a matriarch hosting a birthday dinner that fractured under unspoken rivalries. Edward Norton, Ed Harris, Elliot Page, Keke Palmer, Alia Shawkat, and Kendall Jenner rounded out the cast, their characters defined by Demna’s designs. Fashion became a tool for storytelling: a fur coat embodied dominance, a slinky gown radiated seduction, and a tailored jacket symbolised power. The film blurred satire and drama, reflecting family hierarchies as metaphors for fashion’s own power structures.
On the red carpet, Alex Consani, Boscono, and Lila Moss appeared in character, while Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore extended their roles as La VIP and La Mecenate. With Serena Williams, Jin of BTS, and executives like François-Henri Pinault present, the event played more like a film festival than a fashion show, proving that Gucci’s new era is rooted in cinematic spectacle.
With La Famiglia and The Tiger, Gucci announced a decisive shift in how it presents fashion. No longer bound by the cadence of runway shows, the house embraced cinematic storytelling to embed design within archetypes and cultural narratives. The collection honoured its Italian roots through heritage codes yet expanded outward into a global discourse on family, identity, and performance. Demna’s first full runway for Gucci will arrive in February 2026, a date charged with expectation, but this debut has already reshaped perceptions. By clothing a fictional family and extending their lives onto the big screen, he demonstrated that fashion today must speak beyond aesthetics. It must narrate, provoke, and resonate. Gucci’s new chapter is therefore not just about garments but about experiences that demand to be lived. The message was unmistakable: under Demna, Gucci is rewriting how fashion tells its story.
In case you missed it, watch The Tiger here:
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