Demna dials it down for Gucci’s Autumn/Winter 2026 collection.

Italian actress Mariacarla Boscono walks the runway for Gucci’s Autumn/Winter 2026 show (Photo: Getty Images)

In his first runway show for Gucci since his appointment as creative director in March 2025, Demna reintroduces us to the Gucci It-girls. He dresses them in his “new vocabulary of  silhouettes, textures, and materials” with “seamless garments and pieces cut as close as possible to the body–a quintessentially Gucci sensibility”, as explained in the official show notes. But he is determined to infuse a “sense of pragmatism” in this Autumn/Winter 2026 collection, entitled Gucci Primavera–a big departure from Demna’s propensity for maximalist proportions and extravagance. 

Demna takes us through different archetypes of women. His models strut down a single illuminated pathway in a museum-like space, surrounded by replica marble statues, at the Palazzo Delle Scintille in Milan, Italy. We know their faces: Elon Musk’s outspoken estranged daughter Vivian Wilson, straight-edged Elsa Hosk and Karlie Kloss, legendary Italian model Mariacarla Boscono, as well as edgy LA party girl Gabriette.

Vivian Wilson (Photo: Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Gucci)

The stark white ensembles, such as slinky, long-sleeved gowns, t-shirts and a minidress crafted from hosiery fabric, are held in Grecian drape. Subversive yet virginal, they evoke Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus found in the Uffizi Gallery–one of the starting points in Demna’s research on Gucci and its Italian heritage. 

(Photo: Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Gucci)

For a second, silhouettes get looser with streetwear-inspired pieces; tracksuits–a signature for Demna who rose to fame with Vetements–are morphed into dresses and styled under flowing trenchcoats. But it all tightens back up again to portray pure Italian sensuality, with ultra-tight G-monogram pencil skirts, opulent fur stoles, and feathered bubble blousons and bomber jackets. 

From there, the party girls emerge, wearing ensembles with echoes of Tom Ford-era design language. Reviving the reckless, devil-may-care attitudes of the ‘90s It-girls, the models strut down the runway in low-rise leather pants, risqué gowns and minidresses with waist-high slits–holding their handbags in the crook of their arm. The ultimate party girl and legendary British model Kate Moss closes the show in a sequinned backless gown with a gold GG thong bedazzled with 10-carts worth of diamonds. 

Kate Moss

Living up to his promise to introduce “products that can be enjoyed by a variety of people”, Demna’s latest collection for Gucci continues to take a minimalist new direction–which is still surprising a year after his appointment, even when restraint permeates his recently released Gucci projects, including the La Famiglia campaign and his short film The Tiger. In Gucci Primavera, Demna showcases an understanding of human form, behaviour, and culture–and one hopes it is enough to tide him over the furore around Gucci’s rollout of AI-generated ads preceding the show.