Background

Alessandro was born in Rome, Italy in 1972. His father, Vincenzo, worked as a technician for the airline, Alitalia, and was a gentle nature-loving hippy type who in his spare time liked to visit art galleries and old churches with his son. His mother used to work as an assistant to a film executive - during his childhood she was an ultra-glam urbanite who knew lots of actors.

Education

Alessandro Michele attended Rome's Costume e Moda after finishing school.

Career

After studying, he joined the Italian knitwear brand Les Copains. Then Michele began to work under Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi at Fendi, where in the late 1990s he had notable success in designing leather goods.

Alessandro was tapped by Tom Ford in 2002 and moved to Gucci’s London-based design office. Over his 12-year tenure within the Gucci design studio, Alessandro held a variety of roles: in 2006 he was named Leather Goods Design Director and promoted in May 2011 as Associate to then Creative Director Frida Giannini.

In September 2014, Alessandro took on the additional role of Creative Director of Richard Ginori—the fine Florentine porcelain brand acquired by Gucci in June 2013. He began in his position as leader of product offering and branding of Gucci, re-positioning it for the luxury market with new collections and a new store design template.

Alessandro was announced as Gucci’s new creative director in January 2015. It was during the Gucci Men’s Fall/Winter 2015-16 runway show that Alessandro first revealed a new direction for Gucci. His full vision for Gucci was on display during the Women’s Fall/Winter 2015-16 runway show.

In 2018, Alessandro was seen at the 2018 Met Gala wearing a matching ensemble with Lana Del Rey and Jared Leto.

Achievements

• 

  Michele was given free reign to bring his idiosyncratic sense of vintage style to the Italian fashion house, leading to a period of impressive growth at the house. In March 2017 the house GUCCI reported an “exceptional (financial) performance across the board,” with a record first quarter revenue increase of 51 percent — its strongest in 20 years, and is now aiming for a €10 billion revenue threshold.
  
  His highly original vision was recognised less than a year into his new job by the British Fashion Council, which awarded Alessandro the 2015 International Designer Award at the British Fashion Awards. And in 2016, he was awarded the International Award by the CFDA ‘for his creative contribution to the international fashion stage’, and the British GQ Designer of the Year Award.
  
  Responsible for all of Gucci’s collections, product categories and the company’s global brand image, Alessandro's unique understanding and appreciation of the historical codes of the house, combined with his contemporary sensibility, has created a compelling new narrative for the brand.
  
  In 2017, Michele was listed as one of HypeBeast's HB100, an honor bestowed to the top 100 most influential people in the industry.
  
  

Works

More photos

• design

  • Sequin embroidered velvet gown

  • Tulle gown with crystal tassels

  • Flora Snake print silk dress

  • Leather embroidered ankle boot

  • GG Marmont embroidered velvet bag

  • Sylvie embroidered mini bag

  • Flashtrek sneaker with removable crystals

  • Herringbone coat with embroidery

  • Brocade evening jacket with detachable lapel

  • Embroidered sequin jacket

  • GG sequins bomber jacket

  • Horsebit GG Velvet loafer

  • Princetown GG velvet slipper

Politics

For a designer working in the topsy-turvy realm of fashion, Michele finds these times especially invigorating – at least creatively. The politics of the day have “been the engine of something completely the opposite,” he says. “In England, when you had Margaret Thatcher, it was one of the most creative moments.

“We have to use our voice. I don’t want to just talk about dress,” Michele says. “The way you think is important.”

Views

Alessandro Michele is a free thinker and a dreamer who reckons fashion should be like a universal language - an expression of a way of life and a point of view. Known for explosive color and blurring gender lines, Gucci’s creative director has lured many celebrities with his philosophy of diversity and says beauty has no boundaries, rules or colors. Michele has reworked Gucci’s once-polished, sexually provocative aesthetic into a chaotic collage of past and present. He mixes Renaissance references with rave culture. He blurs gender lines with lace shirts and floral prints for men. Alessandro favors feminine-looking male models and handsome female ones. Elegance and garishness meet in a single ensemble.

Many design houses draw inspiration from different eras and parts of the world. Michele puts all those influences on the catwalk at the same time – sometimes on a single model.

Michele’s catwalk shows have been a parade of quirky models who are removed from the classic beauty ideal. They are skinny – as models tend to be – but often have a look of slack-jawed, awkward adolescence. He has pushed the idea that gender is not a matter of either-or with models who are not easily categorized at a glance. He has cast the 80-year-old actress Vanessa Redgrave in his advertisements.

Quotations: Alessandro Michele loves his job, as he confirmed to Vogue: “It’s incredibly beautiful to work on Gucci because I can translate all my passion. I can create the character I want. And I’m having a lot of fun.”

"The way you dress is an expression of your personality."

"Fashion is the most beautiful illusion you can have."

"Beauty has no boundaries, no rules, no colors. Beauty is like a religion. You can include everything inside it."

"The way you dress is really the way you feel, the way you live, what you read, your choices. That's what I want to put into Gucci."

"I think that there is not really a difference between a 'Peanuts' and a beautiful Renaissance painting. There is something very romantic in the 'Peanuts' - it's at the same level of a novel or a Jane Austen story or a beautiful embroidered rose fabric. It is a piece of romanticism."

"Vintage is my vocabulary... like the notes of a musician."

"Luxury means that you show the way you dress with eccentricity."

"I spend a lot of time in Paris, in Milan, and in New York, and Rome is a little bit different. There is something in Rome, incredible, like in a Fellini movie. Everybody's screaming and laughing very loud. It's something that can give me more energy in terms of freedom."

"Fashion is not about product; it's about an interesting idea that you can't resist buying into."

"I love taking prints, embroidery, appliques - precious things that seem to be from another time - and using them to create a contemporary, new story."

"There should be no boundaries, no hierarchy, no violence. Men and women are equal."

"I adore pink; it's very powerful. It makes you feel sweet and sexy, also if you are a man."

"Trees and flowers are so important. The idea of blooming is the idea of becoming something different."

"I've always been intrigued and fascinated by Gaga. She is a chameleon; she has the capability to fully express her individuality and her eclectic personality by simply being herself."

"There is something in Shanghai that is very exciting and alive - the idea of a city with two different souls, one from today and another from a long time ago, is amazing."

"When I started to work at Gucci, I tried literally to destroy everything."

"My idea for Gucci was crazy, but that's the only idea I had. I was sure I'd be fired after the first show."

"I really don't consider Kim Kardashian sexy. She's like one of those primordial sculptures of fertility, like the Venus of Willendorf. "

"The only dream I have in my life is to be a little piece of my dad, because he was really happy."

"I'm obsessed with trompe l'oeil - the idea of something that is existing and is not existing."

"All of us, we are not one thing: we're always between two worlds, and the idea of not being sure is very appealing to me."

"I just try to see what happens when you put your feet on the accelerator."

"In fashion, people are very focused on the future, but I really love to talk about the present."

"I adore the classical pieces of our culture. The Greek and Roman are still inside and everywhere; it's impossible to disconnect."

"The idea that a man should be wearing something different and more eccentric is obviously the oldest idea on earth."

Personality

Alessandro Michele doesn't just splash on any old cheap fragrance picked up at duty free lounges, he favors a much more rarified cologne, originally created in 1828 by the Florentine apothecary, Santa Maria Novella.

Alessandro Michele loves animals and has two cute Boston terriers of his own, named Bosco and Orso.

Michele-lookalike Jared Leto’s jubilation at seeing a green coat from the menswear Spring 2017 collection spawned a meme and signified a budding friendship. The actor-slash-singer can often be seen sporting Michele’s designs and became the face of Gucci Guilty in 2016.

Alessandro Michele is good mates with the fabulously stylish gloom-rocker Nick Cave and his equally fabulous ex-model-turned fashion designer wife, Susie.

He favors a healthy serving of tofu accompanied by lashings of steamed vegetables.

His favorite color of all is pink, and he is known to scour antiques shops when he's in London to seek out different pink shades for inspiration.

Physical Characteristics: Alessandro Michele started experimenting with his own appearance and image at the age of eight, and had even bleached his hair by the tender age of ten.

He looks impressively young considering he's edging close to 50. Resembling a kind of high-fashion Jesus, his personal style involves rings, often stacked on top of one another, and a deference for floral suits, silky bombers, and light-wash denim jeans.

Alessandro Michele loves to make his own hands as decorative as possible by wearing multiple rings on every finger, in a mix of emerald, saphire, ruby and pearl styles.

Quotes from others about the person

• Following the surprise announcement of Michele as creative director, Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri commented, “Why should I look for someone else when he can translate the heritage — and when the values of Gucci are in his veins?”
  
  Anna Wintour said about him: "He has helped us dream more freely."

Interests

• His favorite actress is Jean Harlow.
  
  Alessandro Michele also owns a collection of his late dad's wooden walking sticks - which had been hand carved by his dad with symbols of nature and various poetic phrases.
  
  Michele also owns a wardrobe-busting collection of over 360 pairs of shoes.
  
  He also owns a collection of miniature Meissen porcelain pugs.
  
  Alessandro is inspired by Rome's Basilica di San Clemente, a 12th Century church decorated with Byzantine-style mosaics and frescoes, which was built on top of the remains of a church from the 4th century.
  
  He was taught how to crochet when he was a kid by an aunt who thought it would be a good way to channel his restless energy. To this day he still loves to sew, picking up new techniques from YouTube tutorials, and when in London he loves to pop to Liberty to purchase needlepoint kits.
  
  Alessandro Michele is a self-confessed fan of London and loves the city's wild mix of exhibitions, theatres, east London club kids and the glamorous old ladies tottering about the West End.

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  He reckons the US cartoon dog Snoopy is a philosopher.

• Politicians

  Alessandro Michele loves the UK's most famous Elizabeth of all: “The Queen is one of the most quirky people in the world,” he revealed to The New Yorker. “She is very inspiring. It is clear that she loves color.”

• Writers

  Alessandro Michele is an avid collector of 'things'. One of his prized collections comprises 35 different copies of the marvellously-surreal children's book, Alice in Wonderland, originally penned by Lewis Carroll back in 1865.

• Artists

  He is a huge fan of the ultra-kitsch Hollywood designer and costume-maker, Bob Mackie, who over the decades has created jaw-dropping looks for the legendary likes of Cher, RuPaul, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Liza Minnelli, Elton John, and loads more not-very-shy-at-all famous performers.
  
  He is a big fan of his former Gucci boss, Tom Ford. He told Vogue that working for Tom was “a beautiful experience,” and he further enthused that “Tom has a quality like a movie superstar."

• Sport & Clubs

  NY Yankee's

• Music & Bands

  Alessandro Michele was an avid childhood fan of the pop star Elton John. He finally got to meet his idol at a swanky showbiz bash in LA in 2016. They ended up sat together on a couch having a right ol' natter and not long after Alessandro agreed to design Elton's stage cozzies for his next world tour.
  
  Alessandro Michele is a fan of the 80s Manchester-born band, The Smiths.

Connections

Alessandro Michele has been with his long term boyfriend - a brainy chap named Giovanni Attili, who is a professor at the Sapienza University of Rome - for ten loved-up years. He and his fella live in an apartment in an 18th Century building in Rome, which was formerly an office. They also own a country house in a cute village named Civita di Bagnoregio, which is two hours outside of the city.

Alessandro once very romantically made a pendant for Giovanni, fashioned from a plaited lock of his own hair and adorned with pearls.

Father:

Vincenzo Michele

Mother:

Eralda Michele

Partner:

Giovanni Attili

He is a professor at the Sapienza University of Rome.

Friend:

Jared Leto

(born December 26, 1971)

He is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and director. After starting his career with television appearances in the early 1990s, Leto achieved recognition for his role as Jordan Catalano on the television series My So-Called Life (1994).

Friend:

Nick Cave

(born 22 September 1957)

He is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional film actor, best known as the frontman of the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Cave's music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love and violence.

References

• System Magazine Issue #7 (Spring-Summer 2016) Marco Bizzarri and Alessandro Michele Cover