Armani vs Gucci: Fashion's Limits and the 10th Fashion in Film Festival

The Milan Fashion Week autumn/winter 2018/19 closed with a dispute between Giorgio Armani and Alessandro Michele's Gucci, as Armani rejected Gucci's use of severed heads and deformities on the runway. The article explores this clash within a context of political insecurity and argues that Gucci's show, inspired by Guillermo del Toro's 'The Shape of Water', embraces the fantastic and redefines monsters as beautiful. It traces this trend back to 1971 when Walter Albini presented a unisex collection, as highlighted in the exhibition 'Italiana. L'Italia vista dalla moda 1971-2001' at Palazzo Reale in Milan until May 6. The article also discusses the 10th edition of the Fashion in Film Festival at Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi in Venice, organized by the Pinault Collection with Central Saint Martins and IUAV. Founded by Marketa Uhlirova, Roger K. Burton, and Christel Tsilibaris, the festival explores the relationship between fashion and moving images. Uhlirova emphasizes research driven by visual, historical, and ideological concerns, selecting films from archives that have not yet been culturally processed. The festival focuses on fashion in cinema, not fashion films, tracing back to early serpentine dances by Loïe Fuller and the development of the costume designer profession. The article concludes that the clash between Gucci and Armani reflects a system balancing tradition and avant-garde, art and craftsmanship, and that fashion's aesthetic is evolving to embrace mix and disguise.