Until this moment, AOC had not viewed the 2023 Gucci Cruise Collection Cosmogonie video. Transported emotionally and psychologically by the recent Dior Cruise 2023 show, I am even more impacted by the 2023 Gucci Cruise presentation.

Never has AOC connected so deeply with Gucci’s now-departed creative director Alessandro Michele.

The show took place against the backdrop of the historic Castel del Monte in Andria, Italy and in its mega-watt beauty and deep philosophical undercurrent, the 2023 Gucci Cruise Cosmogonie presentation remained true to Alessandro Michele’s vision.

German-Jewish Philosopher Walter Benjamin

Michele was inspired by the work of Walter Benjamin, a 20th-century, German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist.

Reading now about Benjamin, he deserves his own AOC post in this moment of great and growing antisemitism ignited by the global alt-right and embodied in the daily drumbeat of hate against progressive thinkers from Donald Trump, Kanye West and many others.

“If any thinker was able to keep together things that were so distant in time and space, rearticulating them into bursting constellations, it was Walter Benjamin. To this man, who couldn’t survive without his quotations, my gratitude,” said Michele about his Gucci 2023 Cruise presentation.

The Gucci Cosmogonie Cruise 2023 Campaign was shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott [IG] with art direction by Christopher Simmonds. Carlos Nazario styles a model cast that includes Adedayo Atiba, Ruiqi Jiang and Yetunde Odimayo. / Hair by Paul Hanlon; makeup by Thomas De Kluyver

Hope Against Despair

The Gucci Cruise 2023 audio narrative "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"of historical space traveler Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong lining up the capsule perfectly on the moon, so perfectly embodies a political piece AOC shared two weeks ago — a moment in which I temporarily plunged into a moment of despair over 2024 possible presidential candidate Mike Pompaeo.

The committed Christian theocrat and former US Secretary of State under Donald Trump called American teacher’s union president Randi Weingarten “the most dangerous person in the world”, accusing American teachers of advocating a curriculum of “filth” for children.

This hideous comment from Pompaeo came the day that the inspiring space mission Artemis 1 — scheduled to return to earth next Sunday, December 11th — flew perfectly within 81 miles of the moon. The contradiction was almost more than I could bear.