SEEING DOUBLE

A TRICK OF the EYE OR a NOVELTY ACT? GUCCI'S SS'23 TWINSBURG SHOW was NOT JUST the HIGHLIGHT OF MILAN FASHION WEEK but ALSO CREATIVE DIRECTOR ALESSANDRO MICHELE'S SWAN SONG for THE BRAND - AND ONE that WILL GO DOWN in THE FASHION HISTORY

-  CAROLINE SUGANDA

Theatrical, emotional, mesmerising… These are just some of the words used to describe Gucci’s SS23 show at Milan Fashion Week last September. Instagram was flooded with its spine-chilling images, while many fashion insiders claimed that the finale moved them to tears. The whole concept and execution of Twinsburg was just… goosebumps-inducing, in a good, surreal kind of way.

The aftershock would have been amplified, if people had only known then that show would also be creative director Alessandro Michele’s last for the fashion house — breaking news that was only announced two months later.

For the uninitiated, let’s recap the show. For Twinsburg, there was no ordinary photo wall in sight. Instead, tiles of small screens made up a backdrop where live footage of the celebrity’s face or whoever was striking a pose in front of it would appear, as if the individual was being cloned and multiplied. Inside, walls were plastered with black and white close-up photographs of twins in different poses, shot by photographer Mark Peckmezian. Show notes were also doubled — the same content was printed on two sheets of paper in different colours and stapled together. Everything came in pairs, and this concept was deliberately and beautifully executed in detail.