GUCCI PRIMAVERA: DEMNA’S FIRST CAMPAIGN SETS A NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE

Gucci’s Primavera campaign arrives as the first substantial visual statement following Demna’s debut as the house’s creative director. Rather than presenting a narrowly defined fashion identity, the campaign brings together an unusually varied cast, placing established stars, musicians, models and contemporary cultural figures within a shared Gucci universe.

At its centre is Kate Moss, returning to one of the most discussed looks from Demna’s inaugural Gucci show. The black dress, dramatically open at the back and styled with a Gucci logo thong, becomes the starting point for a campaign film directed by Johan Renck. Moss appears lip-syncing to Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” as the setting gradually develops into a crowded dance floor, populated by a group whose different personalities are as important to the visual narrative as the clothes themselves.

The casting deliberately resists a single definition of the Gucci wearer. Xiao Zhan, Jin, NINGNING, Tom Brady, Alex Consani, EsDeeKid, Lee Young Ae, Shawn Mendes, Rico Nasty and Tarzzan join Moss in a group spanning music, sport, film, modelling and contemporary culture. Their presence creates a deliberately broad portrait of the house, suggesting that Demna’s Gucci is less concerned with establishing one particular archetype than with accommodating contrasting identities.

That approach is also visible in the still campaign, photographed by Michal Chelbin. While the film embraces movement, music and social energy, the photographs take a quieter route. Their compositions recall the structure and gravity of classical portraiture, with the models positioned against settings that lend the images a formal, almost painterly quality.

The contrast is important. The clothes belong firmly to the present, yet the visual language draws from older traditions of portraiture and fashion photography. Instead of reproducing historical imagery literally, the campaign places contemporary personalities within compositions that suggest a dialogue with the past. Gucci’s heritage consequently becomes a visual reference rather than a fixed template.

The Primavera collection itself develops this idea through a wardrobe defined by lightness and ease. Gucci describes the collection as introducing a new vocabulary of silhouettes and textures, with different modes of dressing allowing individual pieces to shift between more relaxed and more structured expressions.

This flexibility is particularly significant in the context of Demna’s first collection for the house. His approach does not attempt to discard Gucci’s established visual codes. Instead, familiar ideas are repositioned through changes in proportion, styling and attitude. The result is a collection that can be read as an opening statement rather than a complete manifesto.

The campaign’s eclectic cast reinforces that interpretation. There is no single personality around whom the entire collection is constructed. Instead, each figure brings a different cultural association, allowing the clothing to appear in a series of distinct contexts. The effect is less about defining a uniform Gucci aesthetic and more about exploring the range of identities that can inhabit it.

That breadth also gives the campaign a contemporary quality without relying exclusively on novelty. Established figures such as Kate Moss and Lee Young Ae appear alongside younger cultural voices including Alex Consani and NINGNING. Musicians such as Shawn Mendes, Rico Nasty and EsDeeKid sit alongside athlete Tom Brady and actor Xiao Zhan. The mixture feels intentionally expansive, reflecting the increasingly fluid relationship between fashion, music, entertainment and popular culture.

The decision to return to Moss’s runway appearance is particularly telling. Fashion campaigns frequently introduce new images, but Primavera instead acknowledges a moment that had already generated attention during Demna’s debut. The campaign therefore operates as a continuation of the runway rather than an entirely separate chapter. The black dress becomes a visual thread connecting the show to the campaign, while the film gives the look a different atmosphere and narrative.

The choice of “Wicked Game” adds another layer. Chris Isaak’s song carries an immediately recognisable emotional quality, and its use alongside Moss’s performance creates a tension between glamour, intimacy and theatricality. Renck’s direction allows the campaign to feel closer to a cinematic scene than a conventional collection presentation, with the dance floor providing a setting in which the different characters gradually converge.

Behind these images sits a fashion house with a history stretching back to Florence in 1921. Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci, whose early experience working at London’s Savoy Hotel exposed him to the luggage and travel accessories of wealthy guests. After returning to Florence, he established a leather goods business that drew upon the city’s artisanal traditions and his understanding of luxury travel. The house subsequently developed into one of Italy’s most recognisable fashion names, building its identity through leather craftsmanship, distinctive motifs and a continuing relationship with Italian design culture.

That history gives Demna a substantial archive to work with. Gucci’s challenge is not a lack of recognisable codes but the question of how those codes can remain relevant without becoming overly dependent on nostalgia. Primavera suggests an answer based on reinterpretation: heritage remains visible, but its meaning is allowed to shift according to the person wearing it, the setting and the styling.

The campaign’s photographs make that particularly apparent. Their classical references lend the clothes a sense of permanence, while the personalities themselves prevent the imagery from becoming overly reverential. There is a deliberate friction between old and new, formal and relaxed, recognisable and unexpected.

For Gucci, Primavera therefore represents an important early marker in Demna’s tenure. It does not attempt to explain every aspect of his vision. Instead, it leaves room for interpretation, using clothing, casting, music and image-making to establish a mood around the collection.

Perhaps that restraint is what makes the campaign worth watching closely. A creative director’s first season rarely provides every answer, and Primavera does not pretend to. What it offers is a set of clues: an expansive cast, a willingness to revisit a recent runway moment, a renewed interest in the relationship between fashion and image, and a Gucci heritage treated as material to be explored rather than simply preserved. The next chapters will determine how far those ideas travel, but for now, Primavera makes clear that the house has entered a period in which its familiar language is once again open to interpretation.