Tue 21st June
In a shoebox-sized vintage shop in the middle of Milan hung a brand new Gucci collection. Grumpy-looking teddy bears pouted across playful gingham twin sets. There were squirrels and cute little lambs too, along with immaculate flared trousers, slick suit jackets and love heart-laden booties that sat perfectly just above the ankle.
This was Alessandro Michele’s Ha Ha Ha collection, created via “the synthesis of a friendship” between the creative director and pop megastar, Harry Styles.
As Styles currently tours the globe in an entirely custom Gucci wardrobe, Michele took over said vintage shop to reveal the collection to the press. Borrowing its name from the twosome’s first initials, Ha Ha Ha is how the pair have signed off their text messages to one another across their nearly 10 years of friendship.
“Harry has an incredible sense of fashion. Observing his ability to combine items of clothing in a way that is out of the ordinary compared to the required standards of taste and common sense and the homogenization of appearance, I came to understand that the styling of a look is a generator of differences and of powers, as are his reactions to the designs I have created for him, which he has always made his own,” said Michele in a statement.
The idea to create the collection came from a phone call between the pair. “I proposed creating a “dream wardrobe” with him, starting from those small oddities that come together in childlike visions,” Michele continues. “We ended up with a mix of aesthetics from 1970s pop and bohemian to the revision of the image of the gentleman in an overturned memory of men’s tailoring,”
Ha Ha Ha comes mere weeks after Gucci launched its juggernaut Adidas collaboration with a series of global activations. It’s also Styles’ first time stepping into luxury apparel, with the launch of the star’s Pleasing beauty brand proving a mammoth success.
Although it’s yet to be revealed when the collection arrives in stores, if you want a slice of the collection you’re going to have to act fast. The Styles army holds no prisoners.
Photography by Simon171.
