It feels like a boy's story, a pirate story, a talented designer enjoying himself by copying the other. But this is real. The hacked collection GUCCI X BALENCIAGA was shown last April.

 

Gucci celebrates its 100 years with a "hacked" Balenciaga collection.  Alessandro Michele (designer Gucci) explained, "Gucci becomes for me a hacking lab, made of incursions and metamorphoses ... I have plundered the nonconformist rigor of Demna Gvasalia and the sexual tension of Tom Ford.”

This pushed the creative director into a new direction, especially when you’ve been given permission to do so. Balenciaga designer Demna Gvasalia gave his approval to the entire exercise.  Demna says that the designs were so spot on, that his partner believed it was his own design. So will this be the future, a permission hacking of brands, instead of collaboration? I'm curious. For me, fashion is the pioneer.

 

podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yioSgmAcJkoyg5lSqhwmM?si=PEK71hb7Qh61cUS-vzRskw&dl_branch=1