Gucci's Surprising Hire

The autumn/winter 2016 Gucci show in Milan yesterday witnessed something of a creative coup for the label's creative directorAlesssandro Michele. Alongside the "bourgeois Renaissance"-inspired clothes, came bags that were made in collaboration with the graffiti artist GucciGhost (real name Trevor Andrew), who Michele brought on board as an official member of the Gucci design team after seeing his unsolicited interpretation of the double G logo on the street.

"I saw the way Trevor was using the symbol of the company and I thought it was quite genius," Michele told WWD. "It's completely different than the idea of copying. It's the idea that you try to take to the street, through language like graffiti, the symbols of the company."

Michele's inclusive, laissez-faire attitude once again sets him apart from his contemporaries, many of whom would have no hesitation in pursuing a trademark infringement case resulting in lengthy court costs and unwelcome press. The designer revealed that he also had no trouble getting his bosses on board with the idea, going so far as to say that CEO Marco Bizzarri "was quite in love" with the idea. For his part, Andrew says that although he felt "a little intimidated" by the process, it gave him "validation for my craziness".

"Alessandro takes risks, I take risks. He really gave me the freedom to create and be comfortable," enthused Andrew who designed the dripping prints that feature throughout the collection from his own studio set up by Gucci. "I just had music on, and was painting bags and painting jackets and painting material and drawing stuff and making my own mock-ups of prints and giving them my whole - just giving them a whole bunch of ideas."