In this photo Gucci’s artistic director Alessandro Michele stands with “My Own Private Idaho” director Gus Van Sant. Together they created “Ouverture of something that never ended,” an online film festival that was shot in twenty days and that’s made up of seven episodes of about twenty minutes, each. “Ouverture” launched November 16th and ends today on Gucci’s YouTube channel and the GucciFest site.

In addition to this series, Gucci is showcasing the work of fifteen designer/filmmakers, among them France’s Charles de Vilmorin, a fashion designer who draws inspiration from Klimt, Chagall and Niki de Saint Phalle.

2020 has proven an incubator for innovation in how to capture the public’s attention in the face of the constraints imposed by the coronavirus. Normally, the kinds of showcases such as what Gucci is proposing are the realm of big corporate groups like LVMH, not individual brands (Gucci is a part of the LVMH Group).

This unique format has been a part of Alessandro Michele’s approach to “open” and “liberate” fashion since his appointment in 2015 as Gucci’s fashion director. Michele is also the driving force behind Kering, one of the sponsors of the Cannes Festival. So far, the results have proven Michele right: in 2019, Gucci generated 9.6 billion euros of the 15.8 billion euros in group sales.

A still from “Ouverture of something that never ended”