XXL SPORTSWEAR & MONOGRAMMED SKATEBOARDS AT GUCCI CRUISE 2024

Gucci runway shows are nothing if not pure spectacle, with or without former creative director Alessandro Michele overseeing the affair. You may think that just because Gucci's Cruise 2024 runway show is a mid-season presentation, for instance, that it'd be easy for the luxury label's creative team to play things safe, stylistically. You'd be wrong.

Gucci Cruise 2024 is a riotously fun frolic through retro sportswear, deconstructed workwear, and indulgent logomania, rich with Gucci quirk. It's safe to say that Michele's spirit lives on with today's Gucci, though perhaps things will change when Gucci's current creative director, Sabato De Sarno, takes over the house's collections come Spring/Summer 2024.

Unveiled May 16 in South Korea, Gucci Cruise 2024 carries over a lot of the quintessentially Gucci fare we saw in the Fall/Winter 2023 collection, Gucci's first without Michele on-board.

If anything's changed, it's that silhouettes have become even more voluminous, with enormous trousers and baggy sport jersey-inspired T-shirts literally expanding the Gucci silhouette.

You could also point to Gucci Cruise 2024's disparate stylistic cues as evidence of growth. Not that Michele ever left any stone unturned but Gucci's design team is really pushing the envelope with blue collar work vests, high-tech nylon flight uniforms, and technical, form-fitting dresses seemingly inspired by surfing garments.

Speaking of, some of the best bits on the runway were simply Guccified sporting gear. Gucci surfboard anyone?

Not that we've never seen this trick before but the novelty of seeing typical sporting items rendered luxe will never get old.

Speaking of, by far the coolest handbag on the runway was a skate deck-turned-carrying case. Again, not the first time we've seen a skateboard bag but Gucci's got a pretty novel take on the concept.

De Sarno's got his work cut out for him: live up to his predecessor or go even wilder?

At least if he leans into the latter, there's already precedent for a pleasantly chaotic Gucci.