Gucci ready for “massive” London fashion show at Tate Modern next week

London is preparing itself for the megawatt Gucci effect. The Italian house's upcoming cruise collection is set to take over the Tate Modern on Monday, May 13. Organisers have said the international affair will be “massive”.

Gucci fashion shows are notoriously starry affairs. In September, for creative director Sabato De Sarno’s debut, Julia Roberts, Jessica Chastain, Kendall Jenner, Bad Bunny and Rylan Gosling all flocked to Milan to sit front row. Since, Paul Mescal and Billie Eilish have both become faces of the Italian brand's latest incarnation.

The news Gucci had its sights set on Britain might have come to a blow to some UK fashion editors who enjoy packing their Rimowa trunks for long haul flights to sample cruise offerings — last year, Gucci showed theirs in Seoul, while Dior opted for Mexico City and Louis Vuitton presented their Men's Pre-Fall 2024 in Hong Kong last November. It does follow a luxury brand shift of interest on the UK, however. Chanel showed their 2023/24 Métiers d'art show in Manchester in December, while Dior has whipped up excitement with dreams of couture kilts, as they prepare to present their cruise show in Scotland this June.

Why London? Creative director Sabato might well have had a lightbulb moment when he was in town launching the Gucci Cosmos exhibition extravaganza last October. He was certainly taken aback by the expansive show, which dug into the history of the house roots in the capital; a story which began in 1897, when to-be founder Guccio Gucci first fell in love with leather goods working as a luggage porter in the Savoy hotel’s lifts. “Bellissimo” Sabato said, as he wandered, doe-eyed, through the archival pieces and his own “Ancora” designs — all deep reds and 90s Gucci sexiness.

The most recent Gucci runway to come to London was in June, 2016, when former creative director Alessandro Michele presented his pre-spring/summer 2017 collection at Westminster Abbey — its first ever fashion show. Those are big loafers to fill, but Sabato is promising to put on a show.