Brief meetings: short shorts in the spotlight at the Gucci men's show

Gird up your loins. The main missive from the Gucci men's show in Milan on Monday afternoon was that short shorts were climbing the style charts for summer. Of 46 of the looks featured, 41 featured shorts hovering around the 3-inch and 5-inch inseam mark. One model’s look even consisted of simple, smooth leather shorts in Gucci’s signature “Ancora Rosso” oxblood color. In the front row, Irish actor Paul Mescal added to the atmosphere by wearing a lightly striped cotton pair from the brand that, at first glance, could have been mistaken for boxers.

While Mescal was named the Italian brand's official ambassador last October, he also became the unofficial face/legs of the short shorts trend. He was one of the first to bring micro shorts into the spotlight when he was photographed around 2020 in a pair for his local GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) team, an Irish sporting organization for which Mescal previously played football . Since then, “thigh summer” has become a popular hashtag on social media and now Gucci has elevated the trend to high fashion.

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Organized at the Milan Triennale, a vast a museum of design and art in Lombardy, the exhibition was the third men's collection under the direction of Sabato de Sarno, who was named creative director in January 2023. Serena and Venus Williams, alongside De Sarno's parents, joined Mescal in the front row, composed of individual box-shaped seats lacquered and pickle-colored, with the atmosphere of the Triennale as a backdrop. vast literary section. The brand also invited 400 students from Milan's fashion and design schools.

While its first two collections were a hard reset after the maximalism of its predecessor, Alessandro Michele , De Sarno's third menswear collection show for Gucci suggested that classic simplicity doesn't always have to be so understated. “This collection is about encounters – incontri – between the city and the beach, and between people who love life. Ultimately, it's about freedom," the Naples-born designer wrote in his exhibition notes.