STYLE Edit: Gucci invites you to ‘wear’ a mask with its Gucci Manifesto casual clothing line

Aug 7 , 2019

Masks feature as the motif of Italian fashion brand Gucci’s ‘Gucci Manifesto’ casual clothing collection, which features women’s and men’s T-shirts and sweatshirts. Photo: Gucci

Style Edit

The Italian luxury brand’s augmented reality app allows people to view the line of men’s and women’s T-shirts and sweatshirts and try on favourite masks from collection

For its autumn/winter 2019-20 collection, Italian design house Gucci seeks to bring the inspiration and process of creating the designs to the fore.

This season’s “Gucci Manifesto” line uses a mask as the motif – something which also appeared in the autumn/winter 2019/20 fashion show in Milan – from its origins as a fashion design idea sketched on a drawing board to being showcased on the runway and then sold in a boutique.

The Gucci Manifesto clothing collection uses a mask as its central motif.

From the theatres of ancient Greece, ritualistic uses in tribal Africa, to swanky and deadly 14th century masquerade balls, the mask as an object, either ceremonial or functional, has played a varied role across cultures, geographies and time.

The “Gucci Manifesto” collection, defined by text elements highlighting the cultural significance of the mask, begins with the statement: “The mask as a cut between visible and invisible.”

This elegantly and efficiently distils the essence of the mask as a way to protect, arm and reveal the wearer to and from the world.

Additionally, Gucci ArtWalls created in Milan, New York, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Mexico City have embraced the spirit of the collection with a series of murals designed to consider the idea.

A hooded sweatshirt with a pale blue carnival cat mask motif from the Gucci Manifesto clothing collection

The casual clothing collection comprises men’s and women’s short-sleeve, crew-neck cotton T-shirts and long-sleeve, oversized hooded or crew-neck cotton sweatshirts, all of which are available in a range of printed fronts and backs.

They include red T-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned with a metal-spiked mask, the brand name and the key statement on the back for women; for men a black or white T-shirt or hooded sweatshirt featuring a carnival cat mask with a statement on the back in pale blue; and front-mask print T-shirts and sweatshirts with the autumn/winter show date on the back for men and women.