The L.A. Story Behind Gucci’s Hollywood Forever Jacket in Stores Now

Alessandro Michele’s spring-summer Gucci collection is just now starting to arrive in stores, including this choice piece with an L.A. story.

The single-breasted, pink windowpane-plaid wool blazer features an embroidered monster applique on the back, with the words “Hollywood Forever.”

It’s a reference to Los Angeles’ famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the final home to classic movie stars Douglas Fairbanks, Jayne Mansfield and Rudolph Valentino, director Cecil B. DeMille and punk rock guitarist Johnny Ramone.

Michele, who told The Hollywood Reporter that he loves L.A. because “it has no rules,” visited the cemetery on July 24, 2016, for the annual Johnny Ramone tribute hosted by the musician’s widow Linda Ramone, and it’s not hard to see how she and boyfriend J.D. King’s retro-romantic style inspires the Gucci designer.

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Ramone is the founder and president of Ramones Productions and the Johnny Ramone Army, a charity organization, and devotes her life to keeping the band’s legacy alive. And it’s not the first time she’s been a designer muse. In 2016, she and King posed at her colorful Sherman Oaks home, Ramones Ranch, for a Saint Laurent video shot by Hedi Slimane as a teaser for the designer’s L.A. runway show at the Palladium.

A longtime friend of Marc Jacobs and Anna Sui, Ramone has been a fixture on L.A.’s style scene for years, attending parties for rock ‘n’ roll-loving designers John Varvatos and Tommy Hilfiger. In October, she and King were guests at the LACMA Art + Film Gala sponsored by Gucci. And yet, Ramone told Vogue that now, she actually prefers having her clothes made, rather than buying off the runway. Spoken like a true stylista.

Every year, her Johnny Ramone Tribute event draws a starry crowd, including Lisa Marie Presley, John Waters, Rob Zombie, Eddie Vedder, actress Gia Coppola and her stylish mom Jacqui Getty, and apparently, Michele, with all proceeds supporting the Johnny and Linda Ramone Foundation for cancer research. The next event is coming up this summer. 

“Hollywood Forever” women’s jacket ($4,200) at Gucci stores and online.