Earlier this year Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Harry Styles partnered to release a collection for the Italian fashion house that was inspired by Styles’ ‘dream wardrobe’. Now, some months later, the pair have released a campaign dubbed Liberated Vanity, starring non-other than Styles himself.
Style’s Gucci HA HA HA campaign is playful, born from a vision of friendship, passion and fun, ultimately capturing moments of human desire in the singer’s interpretation. Styles has long been Michele’s favourite muse, and the collection followed by the campaign is a natural progression of a partnership made in sartorial heaven. In his latest campaign for the brand, Styles let loose and “releases his expressive emotionality”. The result is an authentic presentation of his and Michele’s collaborative effort to the rest of the world.
“I’m so happy to see this project finally come to life,” Styles said in the press release. “I’ve known Alessandro for years now, and I’m always inspired watching him work, so doing this collaboration with my friend was very special to me.”
The Liberated Vanity campaign places Gucci’s Bamboo 1947 bag as the hero, while the campaign distinctly focuses on the collaboration’s accessories, along with Michele’s Prince of Wales coats, checkered suits, layered knits, striped jackets, playful footwear and sartorial tailoring. The Bamboo 1047 is an icon, not only in the house but in fashion and popular culture. The bag was created by the house’s founder in the aftermath of World War II and serves as a repository of meaning from the evolution of codes, becoming a design emblem of Gucci even before it because of the object of desire by almost everyone across the world.
For this campaign, the house enlisted Mark Borthwick to tell the story of this journey of the avant-garde. Through Style’s interpretation jackets, shirts, pants and coats are cut according to centuries-old rules of tailoring. These pieces exude masculine vanity with hypocrisy and false scruples that are generally dictated by convention.
