Cash Or Card? Demna’s Gucci Store Is Officially Open, And Everyone Is Welcome

Come one, come all—Demna’s Gucci store is open for business, and they don’t discriminate. The house presented its Spring/Summer 2027 show on a set mimicking “the Gucci stores of the future”, replete with marble accents, clothing racks against the walls, and accessories arranged on display shelves. The premise was so simple it felt radical: why not design for the people who actually buy the clothes?

The set treated a Gucci store as a meeting of the minds—a gathering space for all the personalities that buy into the house, from the “Rebellious Aristocrat” to “The Snob” and “The Eccentric”. And the collection, for its part, posited that every one of these many personalities is worthy of the runway. “Gucci’s history is carried by personalities, identities, and lifestyles, not purely by design codes,” wrote Demna ahead of the show. “It moves easily between aristocracy and pop culture, Florence and Hollywood, good taste and bad taste (whatever that means), heritage and mass desire, belonging and rebellion.”

The womenswear offering for the season began with so-called good taste, and aristocracy—the icy, aloof type with multiple unpronounceable last names. The dress codes swung between tailored hacking jackets, knee-length riding boots, and sweaters tied preppily over the shoulders. Demna’s commitment to the bit extended into casting, too. The show’s first half was populated by older models with perfectly coiffed hair and preternaturally unwrinkled faces—exactly the kind of woman who is a mainstay in a Gucci store, and rarely, if ever, seen on a runway.

In another nod to the house’s equestrian roots, the iconic horsebit motif was peppered throughout the collection, appearing on jacket collars and tightly wrapped cummerbund belts. Off the runway, the house’s Horsebit bag is having an it-girl moment of its own, which hasn’t escaped Demna’s keen eye. The show put the silhouette front and centre, featuring the hardware both in its original form and on sleek totes and slim party bags.

As the collection unfolded, even more Gucci characters joined the ensemble, skirting between the house’s patrician origins and modern provocation. When the bourgeoisie had taken their lap, the show moved to the eccentrics: the eclectic types who wouldn’t think twice about combining Scottish tweed and tartan with stacked jewellery and oversized, puffy outerwear. There were even echoes of Tom Ford-era sensuality in a parade of all-black looks, featuring cropped trousers and sharp pagoda shoulders. Meanwhile, eveningwear felt like a second skin—the pièce de resistance was a nude, barely-there “gravity” gown, secured to the torso only by a teardrop counterweight hanging over the shoulder.

To capture the essence of Gucci’s more rebellious clientele, Demna once again looked to makeup artist Sam Visser, who created the messy, provocative looks from the Cruise 2027 and Fall/Winter 2026 shows. For this season, Visser created “super sexy pop makeup” featuring bright swipes of eyeshadow, dramatically smudged-out eyeliner, and overlined lips.

That each look felt lifted from its own distinct world was precisely the point—it carried on the conversation started by Demna’s debut collection for Gucci, La Famiglia, where the house’s various archetypes were presented in a series of family portraits. As he expounded in his statement, the creative director continues to present the modern Gucci as an amalgamation of its past, present, and future—“a place where those who may appear to have nothing in common can meet, connect and inspire one another.”

Ahead, see the standout looks from Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection.