The designer brought Gucci to New York with a runway shaped by city characters, house codes, and celebrity appearances.
Gucci brought its Cruise show to the middle of Manhattan with models walking through one of New York’s most recognizable intersections. The location also carried history for the house. Gucci opened its first store outside Italy in New York in 1953, giving the city a long-running place in the brand’s global story.
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Demna’s first Cruise collection for Gucci was called GucciCore, and it arrived with a scale that was almost impossible to miss.
Times Square did half the talking
Before the runway began, the billboards around Times Square were already part of the show. The screens played a mix of visuals and Gucci ads for both real and imagined products. There were scenes of landscapes, animals, and glossy campaign clips, mixed with playful concepts like Gucci water, Gucci travel, and even Gucci life.
The setting worked because Times Square is already a place of advertising, crowds, screens, and spectacle. Gucci did not try to turn it into something refined. Instead, the show used the location’s energy and let the clothes move through all that noise. It felt as if Gucci briefly took over the city’s largest billboard.
GucciCore is Demna’s new house wardrobe
The name GucciCore may sound internet-coded, but Demna’s idea was more practical than playful. In the official show notes, he described it as a permanent collection that will evolve over time and help shape his idea of a Gucci wardrobe.
That explains why the collection focused on pieces with a clear place in daily dressing: the peacoat, the trench coat, the business suit, the essential shirt, and the pencil skirt. These were presented alongside Italian glamour and elegance, which kept the clothes from feeling too plain or overly corporate.
The house codes were still present, from the Horsebit and GG details to the red-and-green Web stripe and Flora prints. But the bigger idea was not to overload the runway with references. It was to introduce clothes that could become part of Gucci’s long-term language under Demna. So when GucciCore points to what everyday Gucci can look like now, the answer is not basic. It is practical, wearable, and still very Gucci.
The collection looked at New York as a cast of characters
The show also worked because it treated New York as more than a backdrop. Demna drew from the idea of people crossing paths in the city, each with their own style, pace, and attitude.
Some looks felt like they belonged to executives heading to late meetings. Others had the energy of downtown kids, gallery regulars, socialites, commuters, and people who look like they are always on the way somewhere more interesting. Models carried phones, keys, flowers, yoga mats, and bags, which gave the styling a link to daily city life.
Nobody’s usual walk through Times Square includes a full runway, giant screens, and Tom Brady in black leather. But the show understood something true about New York: everyone looks like a character, even when they are only crossing the street.
The celebrity moments matched the location
Cindy Crawford walked in a black feathered gown, Paris Hilton appeared as a brunette in a bold printed look, and Tom Brady stepped out in head-to-toe black leather. Candice Swanepoel, Alex Consani, Emily Ratajkowski, Dree Hemingway, and Gabbriette were also part of the lineup.
The front row had its own share of famous faces, including Anna Wintour, Kim Kardashian, Mariah Carey, Lindsay Lohan, Iman, Laura Harrier, and Molly Gordon.
In a different setting, the celebrity-heavy casting might have felt like too much. In Times Square, it honestly fit. The place already runs on attention, performance, recognition, and people stopping to stare. Gucci simply used that language and made it part of the show.
Demna is making his Gucci hard to ignore
Since joining Gucci, Demna has shown that he is not interested in a soft entrance. His work for the house has already included a film presentation, a large-scale February show, and now a Cruise runway staged in one of the busiest commercial spaces in the world.
Watch the full show below
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