The return of ‘’Timeless’’: Gucci Valigeria and the debate on the time

The journey: a recurring theme in the fashion imagination. A waterproof box capable of transporting the imagination to the doors of the possible.
A path that is accompanied by two universal measures such as space and time, and in which it navigates comfortably, but which sometimes, like two seas, come together. And right where this sea washes the beaches of an unknown location on the West Coast, the new Gucci campaign dedicated to luggage takes shape under the filmic eye of Glen Lunchford (movie and campaign director of various collections of the brand):a tribute and a starting point for reflection on the idea of timeless.

On the occasion of the debut of GG Supreme luggage, the CEO of the brand, Marco Bizzarri, articulates a debate between the new and the timeless, as practical responses to the post-Coronavirus crisis. According to Bizzarri, the suitcase connected to the idea of travel is the image of a contemporary society which in times of crisis takes refuge in the classics to rediscover its origins, as happens in the countryside where the heritage and craftsmanship of Gucci are expressed by iconic logo and print that cover the collection. Journalist Robert Williams speaks of timeless as incessant growth that does not correspond to experimentation, but to a recovery and progress, which are found in the codes of the classic, to which reference should always be made in the incessant process of creation. But in the present, everything seems to be born with an end date, as if the very definition of timelessness no longer exists.

The classic itself is often defined as old and antiquated, and in the era preceding that of Alessandro Michele, Gucci was the image of a fashion that does not change but that hides behind the stylistic features of the archive: a move that leads to a loss of solidity of the name and an inflation of the value of the product, as explained by BOF. Williams himself argues that there must be a balance between the demands of the market eager for innovation, and the classic iconography, and all this is made possible by the introduction of the idea of timeless: garments and objects that adapt to each vintage, without belonging to anyone. And to complete the picture that portrays a timeless fashion (in the broadest sense), sustainability is the last element capable of combining aesthetics with ethics, making a garment durable. A secret that resembles a product placement strategy, just like luggage that is updated in its aesthetics but remains faithful to its original form, without canceling the artistic language of fashion. Precisely for this reason, in a re-reading of the brand’s video campaign, it can be seen how director Lunchford also draws from the past and from the classics of the past, inserting references to Italian neorealist cinema and to the avant-garde cinema of the late 80s, to reiterate a ”without time” which is enriched by the experience to establish itself.

Sustainability, craftsmanship and innovation are the principles of tomorrow which, according to the creative director Michele, cannot be looked at individually but only as parts of the whole. ”The suitcase reminds me of distant places that remain alive in my mind” explains Alessandro Michele, ”everything is linked to an indefinite time ”, and continues Bizzarri saying: ”before, we were constantly looking for an escape, but now, following the rules imposed for the fight against the Coronavirus, the value of the past, of the icon, has been rediscovered, and fashion uses this to rediscover itself as timeless”.