At last night’s Gucci Cruise 2026 show, the brand returned to its roots. Namely Florence, where the brand was founded in 1921 and where its archives still reside inside Palazzo Settimanni, built in the 15th century. The archives are impressive not only for their ornateness but their expansiveness: The eras of Tom Ford, Frida Giannini, and Alessandro Michele at the house are all painstakingly preserved, reminding onlookers of the ways the brand has continually evolved and endured while retaining its DNA of Italian excess and heady glamour.
The city of Florence was originally named Florentia, which in Latin means blossoming. The birthplace of the Renaissance, Florence felt apt as the background for a show that felt like the emergence of new growth from fertile ground. Gucci is, in a way, in a moment of transition. The recent reiteration of the house codes by recently departed creative director Sabato De Sarno is still top of mind, while the announcement of his successor, Demna, promises a buzzy and defining new era—if his time at Balenciaga is anything to reference.
Set to the soundtrack of Italian composer Ennio Morricone, the collection, produced by the in-house team, took the best elements of what we’ve come to expect from Gucci. Statement faux-fur coats, floor length, in sable and stracciatella, looked robbed from a glamorous Italian nonna’s closet, while sparkly GG monogrammed leggings perhaps belonged to her granddaughter. Drop-shoulder brocade jackets with fur collars and accompanying pencil skirts topped with aviators felt reminiscent of the power looks of the ’80s.
Lace was layered on simple shift dresses forms in contrasting colors. Lush silk blouses with pussy-bow closures in the back were made modern with an exaggerated curvature of the shoulder—a little reminiscent of Demna already. Eveningwear was mostly presented in silk, ornately beaded, in floor-length gowns in ivory and jet black, and bags were modular takes on classic shapes.
On many models of the bags, the half-horsebit design and vanity-style ones in particular, the straps can be adjusted, wrapped around, or taken off altogether—offering the wearer customizable mobility. The Giglio bag is an homage to the city and to the giglio, the Italian word for lily and the stylized emblem that has symbolized Florence since medieval times.
During the finale, as the models spilled out onto the Piazza Santo Spirito to the delight of onlookers, diners, and teenage fans, the design team came out with François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering, and Kering’s deputy chief executive officer Francesca Bellettini, leading the audience in rapturous applause. The in-house members of the design team neatly preserved that Italian sprezzatura that Gucci does so well by delving into its 46,000-piece archive and all its eras, reminding us that the house’s contradictions are its greatest strength.
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