You expect surreal fashion to appear at the shows of the idealistic young designers – but on the most glamorous runway of the season? Hardly. That’s exactly what Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele delivered on the label’s autumn/winter 2018 catwalk, when he turned the show into an event of Game of Thrones-style magic and fantasy. Models stepped out, carrying immaculately-crafted models of "dragon puppies”, iguanas and snakes; with faun horns and third eyes; and, finally, with life-sized replicas of their own heads. By then, the knitted balaclava with attached long, blue, fluffy hair looked boringly quotidian. Michele’s typically elusive show notes were no help, citing an exploration of the “Gucci cyborg, biologically indefinite and culturally aware.” A call for greater acceptance of diversity, perhaps? Whatever the intention, the evocation of another world was a welcome relief from the strident commerciality of so many other luxury brands – which is ironic, because with Michele’s at the helm, Gucci’s profits are soaring. Maybe weird pays off after all.

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