Sabato De Sarno makes much anticipated debut at Gucci under the gaze of stars like Julia Roberts
CTV
Sabato De Sarno wants people to fall in love with Gucci again, calling his debut collection 'Gucci Ancora,' Italian for 'Gucci Again.'
Sabato De Sarno wants people to fall in love with Gucci again, calling his debut collection "Gucci Ancora," Italian for "Gucci Again."
The title is a touching admission of the challenges facing the 40-year-old designer, who joined Gucci this summer from Valentino, where he worked for 14 years after stints at Prada and Dolce & Gabbana.
The question is: can De Sarno do again what his predecessor Alessandro Michele was able to achieve by exciting the public to swarm to Gucci, pacing revenues at a sustained double-digit growth for French owner, Kering? Until the inevitable dip.
De Sarno's debut Friday, nine months after being hired in the wake of Michele's surprise departure, was the most anticipated on the Milan Fashion Week calendar for next spring and summer womenswear.
The furor was enough to fill the front row with Hollywood A-listers including Julia Roberts and Ryan Gosling.
What the collection wasn't: It wasn't overtly sexy in a sultry way, like in the Tom Ford-era. Nor was it eclectic, like Michele's romantic, gender-fluid vision. Both marked boom periods in the 100-year history of the brand founded by Guccio Gucci after a stint as a bellhop in London.
In one recent interview, De Sarno professed admiration for Brutalist architecture, suggesting a love of the essential, and his collection was exactly that.
