MILAN – A yr after his first Gucci present as artistic director, Sabato De Sarno says he’s “as completely happy as the primary day.”
De Sarno was appointed to the position in January 2023 and, in an unique WWD interview to debate the launch of his cruise 2025 advert marketing campaign, the designer brimmed with pleasure in regards to the unveiling, given his ardour for the photographer chosen, Nan Goldin.
“Working for Gucci has given me the likelihood to work with such artists, as a result of Nan is a real artist,” mentioned De Sarno. “The previous yr has been an intense expertise crammed with many first instances. In fact, I’ve grown, I realized rather a lot as a result of it’s essential to hear, to be open to totally different factors of view, however I didn’t stray from my thought of a girl and my aesthetic parameters. I had the liberty to decide on, however I stayed true to myself. That is essential to me.”
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On Thursday, Gucci will globally current the “We Will All the time Have London” marketing campaign fronted by Debbie Harry, cofounder with Chris Stein of the band Blondie; singer, cellist, and composer Kelsey Lu; Alaato Jazyper, the face of Gucci’s fall 2024 marketing campaign, and Yanan Wan, who opened the cruise 2025 present. Harry and Lu each attended the model’s spring 2025 present final week.
De Sarno selected London and the Tate Fashionable Tanks for Gucci’s cruise present in Could, given the model’s connection to town, the place founder Guccio Gucci, working in 1897 on the Savoy and observing the visitors’ baggage, was impressed to begin creating his personal line of luxurious suitcases and baggage.
For De Sarno, London is rather more than that. He associates it with music, tradition and artwork, “the conflict of various cultures,” he mentioned, and ticks off a number of of his favorites — the Tate’s Brutalist structure, town’s surrounding countryside and the Rivoli Ballroom, courting again to the ‘50s and famed for its unique decor. It has hosted Lu performances.
The wealthy interiors in pink velvet and flock wallpaper function the background for the photographs, which have a mysterious nighttime ambiance, along with different signature areas, together with the seats of one of many metropolis’s iconic cabs.
De Sarno enthused about Goldin’s artwork. “I’m a fan, and I’ve a photograph of a pair captured within the second after making love. I like her work as a result of the context of her photographs is all the time very actual, she represents actual life,” he mentioned.
Goldin, who’s a 2023 Academy Award nominee for her documentary “All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed,” has a particular imaginative and prescient and an MO that’s similar to his personal, he continued.
“Earlier than taking pictures, she should meet [those involved], spend time with them. She had conversations with the fashions and me, to grasp me and my aesthetics. It was a stupendous expertise so it was not solely a set, however a second of actual life; she created an intimate environment with the skills and the workforce. She goes beneath the floor, attending to the soul of individuals.”
Likewise, De Sarno mentioned that working with these with whom he has constructed a optimistic relationship makes him really feel “extra relaxed.”
“What I like essentially the most about Debbie Harry is her irreverence. She is a free spirit in her decisions, and she or he remains to be an icon,” mentioned De Sarno of the artist. “I’ve all the time been a fan of Blondie; they marked particular moments of my life and impressed generations. She is American however she has a robust reference to London.”
The Blondie bag, which is a key accent within the marketing campaign, isn’t named after the band, as it’s a design that dates again to 1971 with interlocking Gs, De Sarno identified, and that he has revisited, additionally in his signature Rosso Ancora.
Requested in regards to the significance on this present state of affairs to look again on the historical past of a model, De Sarno mentioned that he stays “fascinated” by the facility and the breadth of Gucci’s archives. “I realized a lot going via them. I could be modern as a result of I do know the previous. I’m fascinated about at this time however the previous is essential.” That is additionally mirrored in his life, he added, in his robust relationship together with his household, for instance.
“Everybody has a reminiscence related to Gucci,” he remarked. “It’s an organization that has a historical past spanning 104 years, that invented so many equipment. I actually suppose that Gucci isn’t solely a model and that [the claim] ‘Gucci is a sense’ promoted [earlier this year with Italian tennis champion Jannik] Sinner, is true.”
De Sarno shied away from discussing potential new avenues for the model or his dream tasks, pointing as a substitute to occasions within the pipeline, together with the Gucci-sponsored LACMA gala on Nov. 2 in Los Angeles; the itinerant “Cosmos” exhibit bowing in October in Kyoto, and the “GucciCultural Month” initiative aimed toward paying tribute to the heritage of Korean tradition beginning on Oct. 15 in Seoul.
“My largest want has already been granted, to work for Gucci. I might by no means have imagined it may come true,” he mentioned shyly.