For his spring 2025 men’s show for Gucci, Sabato De Sarno leaned into a theme not seen much this European season: surfing.
There were colorful cabana shirts in GG jacquards, bowling styles in bold hibiscus and dolphin prints, low-slung and stretchy swim shoes, lots of cool sunglasses with foam straps anchoring them to the head or around the neck, and short shorts galore.
Irish actor Paul Mescal, one of the key VIP guests, raised eyebrows with his untucked blue shirt and black-and-white striped boxers, looking as if he forgot to finish dressing for the event at the Triennale Milano museum.
The show was colorful, energetic, bang on trend with its long leather macs, yet also distinctive for skirting the suede, linen and pastels seen on nearly every runway.
But is that enough to get Gucci going again? Should a luxury fashion brand be identifiable by the theme it chose for the season, and the cool merch that it yielded, or for distinct brand codes?
De Sarno’s show on Monday came a few hours after his predecessor, Alessandro Michele, unveiled his first designs for women and men, for resort, as the new creative director of Valentino, which was not expected until September.
That prompted front-row chatter that Michele had essentially released a diss track, diverting attention from Gucci and inviting comparisons. Meanwhile, some online commentators accused Michele of simply transferring his retro-tinged Gucci esthetic to Valentino.
Even if those scenarios are oversimplified, ouch on both accounts.
It must be said that De Sarno’s spring men’s offering for Gucci was at times reminiscent of the monochromatic dressing he plied in his previous job at Valentino, where he was fashion director overseeing both men’s and women’s collections. We’ve also seen cotton shirts blown up into billowing coats during his years at that Roman house, too.
In short, De Sarno seems to still be feeling his way at Gucci. To his credit, he didn’t lean heavily into logos or obvious branding, and instead paraded many striking designs in the trompe-l’oeil vein. Striped rugby shirts were assembled with thousands of tiny, trembling square paillettes, and long-sleeved polos with zillions of sequins set at angles that made the color change magically as the model walked by.
“I am not a stylist. I am a designer and I still sketch, choose the fabrics, the colors and the details,” De Sarno said backstage before the show.
Curiously, the word surfing did not appear in the collection notes, though backstage De Sarno cited William Finnegan’s book “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life” as an inspiration, and the press office dispatched a vintage image of five men riding a big wave.
The designer noted that color has always been key to his design process, and his aesthetic, and they were certainly distinctive in his spring men’s collection, including acid greens, synthetic purples and bright orange, along with white, black and brown, perhaps the newsiest shade of spring 2025.
“I like to play with them, looking for harmony or playing with contrasts and creating new combinations. Color, poplin and prints are expressions of summer for me,” he said, citing hibiscus as a particular favorite.
Perhaps it’s unfair to box De Sarno into a specific method or aesthetic. Indeed, he said he chose the Finnegan book because the ocean, seemingly infinite, is a “path toward freedom” and he’s taking his time to build collections “without making big statements.”
“I feel very free at this moment,” he said.
— With contributions from Luisa Zargani