Game Οn

In a stunning new collaboration with adidas, Gucci takes the iconic codes of the sporting giant and brings them to new heights

- Renee Batchelor

When Alessandro Michele sent pieces from the Adidas x Gucci collection down the brand’s FW’22 runway, the excitement was palpable. The looks and accessories featured truly captured the zeitgeist — meeting at the sweet juncture of high fashion and street style that almost every collab seems to be aiming for these days. Paying homage to ’70s street fashion and the sporting house’s key emblems without being too derivative, this collection was quintessential Gucci shot through with a dose of Adidas.

But what we saw on the runway was just the beginning of this sartorial partnership, as Michele has expanded on the collection that was shown, creating an even wider spectrum of sport-inspired pieces that bear the same kaleidoscopic aesthetic seen in the show. Even the brand images created to showcase this collection have a neo-retro appeal. Captured by photographer Carlijn Jacobs, they feature striking images of models posing with sporting equipment shot against backdrops saturated in bright colour.

As with any Adidas collection, the Trefoil and the three stripes appear as expected throughout the collection. But it’s Micheles’s masterful blending of these motifs with Gucci’s own codes — the interlocking Gs, the horse-bit, the Web and the GG monogrammed canvas — that lend this collaboration instant appeal.