Launched late last year, the new edition of A Magazine Curated By features 280 pages of interviews, imagery and musings brought together by Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele. It is the 16^th issue since the concept was devised by Walter Van Beirendonck in 2001. Prior ‘curators’ have included Proenza Schouler, Stephen Jones, Maison Martin Margiela, Yohji Yamamoto and Riccardo Tisci.

Credited with reviving the Italian house’s fortunes following his appointment almost exactly 2 years ago, this was an opportunity for Michele to express his creative perspective through exclusive content, free from advertising nods or commercial requirements. His vision for Gucci was made clear from the start with his first men’s show in January 2015. After 14 years in the company, latterly looking after accessories under his predecessor Frida Giannini, Michele was promoted with a week to go before the show. Jettisoning the entire pre-prepared men’s collection, he pulled together an aesthetically far-removed offering in a matter of days, showing sheer pussy bow blouses on both men and women, printed suits, and fur lined slip-on loafers, destined for stardom. The New Yorker have since labelled him ‘Gucci’s Renaissance Man.’

His clothes reflect a broad interest in adornment and embellishment over honing a silhouette; a devoted flea-market and museum goer, an antique-cluttered, retro sensibility suffuses his plucked-from-history’s-dressing-up-box offering. A Magazine provides an insight into Michele’s interests and inspirations, from curiosities and keepsakes to the work of artist Cindy Sherman and singer-songwriter Florence Welch, layered over prints which mirror the textiles used in Gucci’s printed suits and boutique interiors. Printed on matte paper of satisfying, substantial thickness, this is a magazine devoid of advice or instructions; it is closer to a personal scrapbook, easy for a reader to delight in its colour and detail-filled pages.

The list of contributors is impressive: Chloë Sevigny, Bruce Weber, Joe McKenna, Glen Luchford, Unskilled Worker, Madonna, Grace Coddington and Jared Leto to name just a few. Each were offered the words ‘blind for love’ – Michele’s theme for the issue, lifted from an 18^th century manuscript – as a starting point. Their myriad narratives number around 40 in total.

One of the most engaging spreads features the actor and model Hari Nef; openly transgender, she has been a force for increasing diversity in the fashion industry of late. She first walked Gucci’s catwalk a year ago in the Autumn/Winter 2016 men’s show. In Michele’s A Magazine she appears as an angel lensed by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, complete with feathered wings, glowing features and a wide-eyed, heavenward stare. Another Gucci model, the photographer Petra Collins, contributes a nostalgia-tinted fashion story. A further fashion story, photographed by Gia Coppola, nods to the film Picnic at Hanging Rock – a perennial favourite of many fashion creatives – with blurred figures clad in ethereal Gucci gowns in sherbet tones draped across a rocky landscape.

The resultant magazine is full of the same sense of purpose which defined Michele’s very first show; behind the scenes snaps of which, taken by Michele, conclude the magazine. It is a treasure: a rich narrative, complete with a youthful cast striving to redefine ideals of beauty.

References:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/19/guccis-renaissance-man

http://www.amagazinecuratedby.com/issues/alessandro-michele/