Jared Leto, Jodie Turner-Smith and Macaulay Culkin Walk in Gucci Show on Hollywood Boulevard

On the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 2, a star-studded and Hollywood-heavy crowd turned up for what was arguably the L.A. fashion event of the season. Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele showed the latest “Love Parade,” his spring-summer 2022 fashion collection, in a presentation where models emerged from the TCL Chinese Theatre and walked the sidewalks along Hollywood Boulevard. It was truly a monumental occasion, as this year marks the company’s centennial.

Muse and brand ambassador Jared Leto (who plays Paolo Gucci in MGM’s upcoming film House of Gucci) walked in the fashion show. So did actors Jodie Turner-Smith, Macaulay Culkin, Jeremy Pope and Kodi Smit-McPhee; musicians St. Vincent, Phoebe Bridgers, Steve Lacy and Hayden Pedigo; Black Lives Matter activist Janaya Khan; filmmaker-writer Miranda July; and Grace Johnson, sister to Dakota (who watched from the sidelines).

Miley Cyrus — the star of Gucci’s 2021 Flora Fantasy fragrance campaign — showed up and chatted with Lizzo before the show began. Also in the crowd were Billie Eilish, Diane Keaton, Anjelica Huston, Olivia Wilde, Sienna Miller, Serena Williams, Natasha Lyonne, Beck, Selma Blair, and Gabrielle Union with Dwyane Wade and their daughter, Zaya.

“It’s really amazing! First of all, it feels like we’re on a movie set,” exclaimed Tracee Ellis Ross on the street in advance of the show, where rows of GG logo directors chairs were lined up next to the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars on both sidewalks. “There are notes everywhere, even though we’re just on Hollywood Boulevard!”

Ellis Ross, who donned a hardware-embellished turquoise top and sleek red pencil skirt by Gucci, was referencing Gucci’s takeover of the digital billboards along the block, where GG logos and fragments of a quote from Marilyn Monroe, an inspiration for Michele, were projected. Monroe wrote: “I can and will help myself and work on myself analytically, no matter how painful — If I forget things (the unconscious wants to forget — I will only try to remember). Discipline — concentration. My body is my body, every part of it.”

House of Gucci star Salma Hayek Pinault sat alongside her husband Francois-Henri, CEO and chairman of luxury fashion group Kering, which counts Gucci among its brands. And Gwyneth Paltrow showed up in a recent version of the red velvet suit she wore to the VMA Awards in 1996, which was originally designed by Tom Ford when he was at Gucci. There were also legions of other stars from around the globe along with Hollywood fashion stylists and costume designers, talent agents, managers, music producers and moguls.

James Corden, who starred in Gucci’s Beloved campaign in April 2021 (a reinvented version of The Late Late Show) and who attended the fashion show with his wife, Julia Carey, told THR, “Well, I just love Alessandro. He’s amazing. I think he’s a genius. So if you get to be in his orbit, it’s  beautiful.” As to whether he will collaborate again with Gucci, Corden said, “It’s up to him! I’ll always do it. I just love him. Whatever he wants to do, it’s his world, so we’ll just live in it!”

Like a page out of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon (a sequined slogan on the back of many of the jackets) and set to a Björk soundtrack, this centennial show served as a master lesson in Michele’s incredibly successful signature of retro glam. As usual, more was more with a mashup of styles, fabrics, textures and colors. And the freedom was in the mix. Imagine placing sporty leggings, sharp blazers, Western accessories, lace and lingerie in a Vitamix 5200. There were even tropical-print, vacation-ready pieces embellished with the slogan, “Souvenir From Los Angeles.” Standouts for the red carpet included impeccably sharp suiting in soft pastel satins (often finished with Michele’s floral corsages) and new Old Hollywood gowns galore, often in lace with lingerie details, some edged in rich velvet.

“What I had in mind were some night dresses from images of Old Hollywood … I took them to the streets and brought them into clubs,” said Michele, adding that he did not look to specific films for inspiration, but rather imagery of iconic film costumes. “The deities or gods and goddesses of Hollywood are the people in the streets. I see beauty everywhere.”

As if selected from a random grab bag, models were accessorized with a hodgepodge of Western hats, python boots, clogs, elbow gloves, va-va-voom fishnet hosiery, velvet bow ties, metallic disco ball Cleopatra wigs, tiaras, pillbox hats, black lipstick, shield-like or teeny retro sunglasses, wire-like nose jewelry and “sex toys that became bijoux [jewelry]” said Michele. Of course, mannequins of all genders showcased the label’s coveted handbags.

“What an apropos location for clothing that makes you feel like a star!” said A-list Hollywood stylist Jeanne Yang, there with her client, Japanese musician Miyavi. “Such a fun collection, from nose ring to python toe!” Added stylist Elizabeth Stewart, “I thought it was spectacular; I thought it was magical. First of all, I’ve never seen Hollywood Boulevard so clean. To see what we see normally during the day transformed that way was just amazing!” And stylist Warren Alfie Baker told THR, “The show was simply breathtaking. It transported me back to Old Hollywood glamour, while merging with new Hollywood. A triumph of a show!”

In May 2020, Michele announced (in the name of sustainability and inclusivity, along with the pandemic’s influence) that the brand would downsize from five to just two annual — and seasonless — presentations. This move also ended the separate presentation of men’s and women’s collections.

During his reign at the creative helm, Michele has put inclusivity at the forefront of the Italian fashion brand and tonight’s gender-fluid designs were shown on an array of models of all shapes and sizes.

“It think it says so much about the company and the people and Alessandro that they celebrated me and wanted me to represent their fashion line as a creative,” Oscar-nominated Crip Camp co-director James LeBrecht told THR at the afterparty in the back terrace at The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. He was dressed by Gucci for the Academy Awards this year and for tonight’s event. “I may not look like the majority of people, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is who’s inside the clothing. When I put on that Gucci outfit for the Oscars for the first time, I felt elevated. I had never experienced this before. I’m really indebted to them simply by the statement that for people who have been marginalized or discounted or thought less of, that doesn’t work at this company! It’s not charity, like Make a Wish, it’s about being inclusive.”

As for the look of the clothing, LeBrecht continued: “It kind of looked like a fashion show on Snowpiercer in some respects. What I loved about it is it’s a very important statement coming out of the pandemic that there was real joy and creativity and also a vision of possibility in what we saw tonight … it moved you emotionally and that’s what happened to me with my clothing.”

For the afterparty, the Roosevelt’s iconic, David Hockney-painted pool had been covered to create a dance floor, where later in the evening a number of stars actually got up and danced. Seen enjoying the music and letting loose were the likes of Olivia Wilde, Lindsey Vonn, Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson, Paul Mescal and Bridgers, and at one point Michele too. When “Truth Hurts” came on, Lizzo got up on the deejay stage and danced and even twerked to her song.

Hollywood has long been a focus for Michele. His mother worked as an assistant to a film executive, and he fondly recalls watching Donald Duck cartoons as a child growing up in Rome. In 2017, a “Hollywood Forever” applique first showed up on the back of a Gucci blazer in a nod to L.A.’s famous cemetery, the resting place of stars such as Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino, Johnny Ramone, Douglas Fairbanks, even The Wizard of Oz cairn terrier Toto. The spring 2017 menswear collection included Donald Duck prints, while the fall 2018 line incorporated Paramount Pictures logos, and spring 2019 boasted Mickey Mouse handbags. In 2018, Michele feted the Gucci Guilty fragrance at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and the resort 2019 capsule collection included an 18-piece Chateau Marmont logo line, a favorite destination. Last fall, Michele collaborated with filmmaker Gus Van Sant to create a seven-part miniseries, Ouverture of Something That Never Ended, to present the brand’s latest looks.

Leading up to this show, Michele dropped hints on the theme by sending fashion editors background files labeled “confidential” along with sealed crime scene evidence — tubes of Gucci Rouge à Lèvres Golde Red satin lipstick and Racquet Club napkins personalized with a lipstick kiss and handwritten message: “Meet me on Hollywood Boulevard November 2, 8 PM xxx Lello.”

The new collection harkens back to Michele’s childhood, when he dreamed of “the mythopoetic aura of cinema,” according to show notes. “There was the alabaster paleness of Marilyn Monroe and her diaphanous voice. There were the black satin gloves of Rita Hayworth and Veronica Lake’s velvet hair, as well as the bewitching allure of Rock Hudson and Kim Novak’s dizzying transformative power. Everything felt like a fairy tale.” This silver screen worship melds with mythical Greek divinities, he also wrote, to create “idols of a new contemporary cosmogony” or the “demigods” of Los Angeles. And just like that, Michele has christened Hollywood the “mythology of the possible.”

Gucci isn’t packing up and heading back to Europe after tonight, though. The label’s Gucci Changemakers program — which recently handed out $1 million in grant funding to local organizations focused on homelessness and mental health, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, YMCA Hollywood, Happy Hippie Foundation and Los Angeles College Promise — will host a summit in L.A. on Wednesday.

On Saturday evening, Gucci will again serve as founding sponsor of the 10th annual LACMA Art + Film Gala, which will honor director Steven Spielberg and artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald.

Meanwhile, the Ridley Scott-directed House of Gucci will open in theaters Nov. 24.

On the topic of the forthcoming film, Michele commented after the show that he was personally not involved. “But we opened the archives only to the costume designer to pick things necessary to do the film,” he said. “It was interesting to see how a fashion brand is so popular to lead people to make a movie!”

Asked whether he has plans to write or direct his own film one day, Michele said, “Yes, it’s something I’ve thought of and it was proposed. But not now because this work is quite demanding, working for such a big brand. Maybe one day. Cinema is beautiful. I love it!”