Gucci dedicates a documentary to Sabato De Sarno for the launch of his first collection

As Gucci’s Ancora collection hits stores, Kering’s flagship fashion house is marking the occasion with a documentary dedicated to its creative director Sabato De Sarno. Previewed on Friday, March 15 on the VOD film platform Mubi, the short film will be available on all Air France flights in April. More so from April 3, the film will be exclusively available in an Apple Vision Pro version through a virtual reality headset.

Entitled Who is Sabato De Sarno? A Gucci story, the twenty-minute film directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost and featuring the voiceover of Irish actor and Gucci ambassador Paul Mescal, tells the story of the designer’s personality, his creative process and the days leading up to his first show.

This documentary is one of the key supports for the launch of the Gucci Ancora collection for spring-summer 2024, which marks the first stage in the Italian fashion house’s relaunch with a radical change in style and positioning.

After a stable year in 2022 (+1% on a like-for-like basis), Gucci, which accounts for almost half of Kering’s sales, closed 2023 down 2% on a like-for-like basis (-6% on a reported basis), at €9.87 billion, while its profits fell by 13% to €3.26 billion. To turn things around, the label has embarked on a strategy of moving up into the very high-end segment, starting with the rationalisation of its sales channels, and then with the arrival in January 2023 of Sabato De Sarno, who presented his first collection last September.

The creative director has emphasised a chic, sober style, in complete contrast to the flamboyant aesthetic of his predecessor Alessandro Michele, who was fired in November 2022. To signal this change of direction and boost sales, the house has planned a series of initiatives, using as a leitmotif the “Ancora” red, the typical Gucci burgundy used extensively in this first collection.

For weeks now, trams dressed in the brand’s colours have been criss-crossing the streets of Milan. In China, the brand has also deployed pop-ups in the same colour and “Gucci Ancora” banners in streets and shopping centres in major cities, including Shanghai, Chengdu, Beijing and Shenzhen. In addition, a film about Sabato De Sarno will be shown “in major cities around the world, allowing the public to experience Gucci Ancora on the big screen.”