SUN KING

It’s pouring with relentless rain in London, but in Alessandro Michele’s office in a Roman palazzo, the sun is streaming through large casement windows. It dapples the leaves of some luxurious houseplants and lights on a mahogany table where great red leather books, ceramic bowls, glass domes and what looks like a medieval wooden Madonna are grouped in an alluring composition. The Creative Director of Gucci is sitting with his back to all this splendour, wearing a green t-shirt and 1970s-inflected spectaules, and talking via Microsoft Teams about birth, death, the pandemic. art and adornment

Michele, who has been with the Italian fashion and accessories label since 2002, turns 49 this month, but with his flowing mane of black hair, full beard and endless curiosity, he appears much younger. Perhaps that is also in part due to his almost supernatural ability to predict and define the next big thing. His hand-picked family of brand ambassadors is an enviable array of the talented, beautiful and quirky, ranging from Gen Z’s favourite musician, Billie Eilish, to Harry Styles, who has transformed his early boyband fame into something much more intriguing. This Styles has done with the help of a gender-fluid wardrobe of Gucci pieces, not least a glossy bamboo top-handle handbag that Grace Kelly wouldn’t have scorned, which he carried to this year’s Brit Awards.