Gucci's Milan Presentation Was All About Diversity
Fashion

Gucci's Milan Presentation Was All About Diversity

While Alessandro Michele's Gucci still (predictably) delivered its colorful chaos today at Milan Fashion week, the brand also (unpredictably) decided to tackle their diversity issues head on.

Those who have any experience with the fashion house will remember casting director Barbara Nicoli describing the reason why those representing the it are mostly white – essentially trying to justify why only white girls can accurately represent Gucci beauty.

"It's all about your beauty ideal, not the color of your skin or race. It's also true that, for example, Caucasians have a specific body type, black girls have a specific body shape, and Asian girls have a specific body shape. So I guess there are some collections where it's more perfect for an Asian body shape because they are more flat and less sexy, in a way."

Even last September, of the 75 looks on show, very few were worn by non-white models – which resulted in casting agent James Scully giving Gucci "two thumbs down for lack of diversity".

Now, thankfully the brand is showing signs of life and becoming increasingly woke. Not only did today's runway feature many more diverse faces, Gucci announced today it was partnering with non-profit Liberi e Uguali (which translates to free and equal) to prioritize inclusion.

"In the past two years, we have implemented a complete turnaround of our company," CEO Marco Bizzari said of the decision to WWD Daily. Following our mantra of being the voice of self-expression. Attracting, retaining and promoting talent, while celebrating ethnic, age, sexual and gender diversity, sexual orientation and gender identity across the company, is our mission..."

Gucci also teased images of their Spring campaign last month that featured nine black models, an astronomical step forward for the company.

Watch the full runway below, which, despite being wonderfully presented behind plexiglass and is not a Spring collection, was still a whole lot of florals and glitter. You have to admit, though, they do it well.

[h/t Teen Vogue]
Image via YouTube