Gucci's Epilogue presentation was the brand's most viewed digital event.
Alessandro Michele
The Italian fashion house streamed a 12-hour event, including a presentation of the new collection, along with the release of a visual narrative feature, worldwide on gucci.com, YouTube, Twitter, Weibo, the Gucci app and on Gucci's Facebook page, on July 17 and it reached more than 35.2 million views globally.
Marco Bizzarri, president and chief executive officer of Gucci, told WWD: "Even before Covid-19 we firmly believed in the blending of digital technology and the one-to-one human touch as a differentiating factor in the way we engage with the Gucci community. Technology and social media platforms aren't simply tools; they represent a form of expression, a way to create meaning and open up our world, the world of Alessandro Michele's imagination, to a global audience. This is even truer in the post-Covid-19 world and for Gucci we believe in this approach now more than ever.
"You have seen how in this spirit Alessandro has revealed in an entirely open, transparent and authentic way the process of fashion through his Epilogue to simply tell the world: this is who we are. This is our truth. Since Day One at Gucci I believed in ideas; blending digital and human emotion and creativity is and will remain our way at Gucci."
Creative director Alessandro Michele renamed the Cruise collection to Epilogue as he moves his brand away from the traditional fashion calendar to showing just twice a year.
Speaking previously about how the Covid-19 pandemic has made him reevaluate how the Italian fashion house operates, he said: "We are a big brand, so we have a responsibility to take care of our industry. We need to give it the time that's needed. The things we make have a longer life than what we have allotted to them in the past. We all agree that fall and spring are the most appropriate [time frames] to show our work, but I hope that other brands will follow us so we can have an open dialogue to arrange new dates."