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STYLE Edit: What does the horse all over Gucci’s new campaign ad have to do with a collection about sexual liberation?

What’s with all the horseplay in Gucci's Spring Summer 2020 video? Photos: Gucci
What’s with all the horseplay in Gucci's Spring Summer 2020 video? Photos: Gucci
Style Edit

Is the omnipresent horse in Gucci’s Spring Summer 2020 collection ad – realised by Alessandro Michele and shot by Yorgos Lanthimos – a Dali-inspired surrealist projection or all a bit of horseplay?

There are times in every fashionista’s life where she will come across a campaign or collection and utter those four dreaded words: “I don’t get it.” She may wonder if she’s still in the loop, if she’s still en vogue, when it comes to understanding fashion’s seasonal offerings.

And then she’ll look at this campaign and realise it’s just Gucci being Gucci.

For Gucci's Spring Summer 2020 collection, an ad campaign realised by creative director Alessandro Michele and shot by Yorgos Lanthimos features a horse as its leading protagonist.
For Gucci's Spring Summer 2020 collection, an ad campaign realised by creative director Alessandro Michele and shot by Yorgos Lanthimos features a horse as its leading protagonist.
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For the brand’s Spring Summer 2020 collection, an ad campaign realised by creative director Alessandro Michele and shot by Yorgos Lanthimos features a horse as its leading protagonist. Yes, you read that right: a horse.

Equipped rather smugly with an #ofcourseahorse hashtag, the horse joins its Gucci gang on the beach for summer sunbathing, in the kitchen to share a snack, at the car wash, in a traffic jam and in first class on an aeroplane. It seems the horse is everywhere but the Jockey Club.

Gucci’s brow-scratching horse crops up in all sorts of incongruous situations – because it’s Gucci.
Gucci’s brow-scratching horse crops up in all sorts of incongruous situations – because it’s Gucci.

Other than the large mammal, there is the other equestrian allusion. We note the house code: the horsebit detailing on the new spring/summer dome-shaped bag with the words “Gucci Orgasmique” across the front. What a horse has to do with a collection about sexual liberation is still up for debate.

The horse – when positioned in an everyday, human context – might remind you of the Greek god of gods, Zeus, who used to transform into an animal to engage in sexual pursuits. If you recall Gucci’s Cruise 2020 art book, Oviparity, Michele alluded to the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, where Zeus took the form of the bird to seduce Leda.

Is Gucci’s horse a human incarnate, a surrealist projection or just a bit of horseplay?
Is Gucci’s horse a human incarnate, a surrealist projection or just a bit of horseplay?