Photo Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
Florence does not whisper; it resonates. A city shaped by centuries, forever reborn in stone and silk, light and shadow. For Resort 2026, Gucci returned to the source—not just its birthplace, but its eternal mirror—with a collection that unfolded in the hallowed interiors of Palazzo Settimanni, home to the Gucci Archive.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
Awaiting the arrival of newly appointed creative director Demna, following the departure of Sabato De Sarno earlier this year, Gucci finds itself in a state of poetic suspension. And yet, even in this interlude this delicate interregnum between visions, the house refused to pause. Instead, the brand’s design studio stepped into the silence, crafting a collection that doesn’t speak of absence, but of continuity. Here, at the intersection of legacy and reinvention, Resort 2026 was born.
Courtesy of Gucci
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
The show opened within the Archive’s frescoed chambers and spilled into the raw beauty of Piazza Santo Spirito, dissolving the boundary between atelier and alleyway, heritage and horizon. This wasn’t simply a setting—it was a declaration. Florence became not the backdrop, but the bloodstream of the collection.
Resort 2026 oscillated between restraint and riot, a curated collision of textures and silhouettes that recalled Gucci’s chameleonic DNA. The looks traversed a spectrum from minimalist tailoring to theatrical maximalism capturing the brand’s refusal to be bound by a single aesthetic code.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
One look, sculpted in sheer black lace and embroidered with three-dimensional florals, conjured baroque nocturnes and whispered defiance. With a plunging neckline framed in cascading ruffles and oversized amber sunglasses, the ensemble felt like a vision caught between mourning and desire. Gothic, romantic, and immaculately constructed, it embodied the house’s power to seduce through contradiction.
Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
Another silhouette burst forth like a fever dream: a cloud of raven feathers, weightless yet monumental, worn as a dress. It moved with silent drama cinematic, irreverent, unforgettable. Anchored by Gucci-monogrammed tights and punctuated by a neon pink satin handbag, it reframed classic codes with playful aggression. This was not nostalgia it was provocation.
Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
Throughout, the collection pulsed with tactile tension: lace tangled with nylon, silk clashed with technical mesh, embroidery disrupted clean lines. Accessories didn’t decorate they punctuated. The palette oscillated from dusky neutrals to chromatic jolts, evoking the light of Florence as it shifts from dawn to dusk.
In an industry moment marked by creative transitions, Gucci stands among the few houses navigating the unknown with elegance. Like many of its peers, it relies at least for now—on the strength of its studio team. But if this collection proves anything, it’s that between creative chapters, there can still be poetry. There can still be vision.
The soul of Gucci is not tethered to one voice. It is a chorus of artisans, of archives, of eras colliding. And for Resort 2026, that chorus sang in Florence, clear and resonant.
As the final model stepped off the mirrored floor and disappeared into the city’s ochre dusk, it became clear: this was not a stopgap. It was a statement. Because Florence is Gucci. And Gucci, even in waiting, never pauses.
Credits: Courtesy of Gucci
