In-transition luxury house Gucci presents its Fall Winter 2023 campaign featuring Vittoria Ceretti, Aboubakar Konte and Brando Erba, lensed by photographer David Sims [IG].

Alastair McKimm styles the cast with hair by Paul Hanlon and makeup by Thomas De Kluyver. “Brakhage” by Stereolab is the music in the campaign video.

Wow, the compliments are extraordinary about this new campaign, with unusually lavish words and praise. Maybe it was an over-the-top PR release, but it sounds more AI-driven to us.

You might think Glinda the good witch descended from the heavens with her magic wand, waving it over Gucci. Pouf! Everything is fixed, so let’s all take a much-needed luxury spa retreat.

Like those Wall Street analysts, Anne of Carversville is in a holding pattern on Gucci and its parent company Kering. Sometimes a clean break is best. But Gucci is also entering territory that is overloaded with competition and major landmines.

Anne of Carversville puts no weight in this FW 2023 campaign, except as an interlude. However, reading the words of other fashion writers, their lavish praise has prompted Anne to step back.

We do agree that the campaign is dramatically different from where the brand has been in about eight years. It’s aloof and a bit haughty. Perhaps Gucci is throwing out the riffraff?

That started as a joke — throw out the riffraff — but it is the goal of the Gucci’s new London flagship.

Certain aspects of the campaign are reflected in Gucci’s new London flagship, which opened September 5 at 144-146 New Bond Steeet. The new 15,000-square-foot megastore will celebrate Gucci’s most-cherished, biggest-spending customers.

The building’s pedigree as a historic Grade-II listed building is sterling. For over a century, it was home to several art galleries. Noteworthy is the mezzanie dedicated to the Gucci Valigeria travel collection, with a Tudor Room displaying items from the Gucci archive in Florence.

The Gucci brand proudly calls out the very top floor, which is Europe’s first Gucci Salon. The creative VIP concept was first introduced in LA last April. In addition to carrying a curated edit of current Gucci collections, the London Gucci salon will feature made-to-measure and made-to-order pieces.

In their own PR, Gucci refers to the salon as atmospheric, like an “elegant home”. Its by-appointment nature offers “intimacy and discretion” for the brand’s top spenders, and “denotes a creative empathy between Gucci and its customers” through “creative conversation, exploration and amusement”.

Gucci is not alone in creating exclusive spaces for their best customers. Balenciaga has a dedicated couture store in Paris. In December 2022, Brunello Cucinelli opened an appointment-only store in New York.

At Beijing SKP — the prestigious mall with the highest sales in China — Dior and Chanel have taken the third floor of the building for VIP-only salons, joining Louis Vuitton who was first to open one.

Following Los Angeles and London, Gucci plans to extend its Salon to other key cities such as New York, Paris, Milan, Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei.

AOC has noted the softness in the aspirational luxury customer market, so I understand the strategic plan.

My point is the wisdom of declaring economic-class exclusivity as a core component in a brand’s DNA at a time when quiet luxury is the opposite trend. Or as a close friend proudly called his new $700 ‘Loro’ baseball cap ‘stealth wealth’.

I noted a few months ago that we didn’t even post the new Gucci Valigeria campaign video, thinking it was just a stop along the way of Gucci’s reinvention. But that mistake was AOC’s.

The video is exactly in sync with the Fall 2023 campaign.

Many luxury brands — Louis Vuitton immediately comes to mind, but also Dior — are redefining luxury in more humanist terms. This branding does not prevent exclusive salons for best customers. But our common humanity — or ubuntu — is part of the luxury brand story.

RIMOWA Celebrates 125 Years on the Road of Purposeful Journeys AOC Fashion

By pure coincidence, we published this post and —boom — the new LVMH-owned Rimowa campaign fell into my digital lap. I think this is divine intervention and my soul sensibility.

There is a declaration that LV and Dior clients are out and about in the world. Yes, they are privileged and don’t want to end up on somebody’s IG or TMZ, seen shopping on the main floor of Gucci in London.

They may be in the streets of Israel, protesting the takeover of the judiciary. They may be UN ambassadors for refugees, who refuse to be silent on award stages. They may be out on the streets of Poland, protesting the total loss of abortion rights or — in the case of Natalia Vodianova, an Arnault by marriage — leading the global campaign of persuading nations to abolish the humiliation and death knell of menstruation huts.

LVMH clients aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.

Chanel, previously a very class-conscious brand, was persuaded to become less so, especially by their brand ambassador Pharrell Williams. Whether Chanel keeps their less class-conscious vibe remains to be seen. Chanel in Dakar may have been a one-off. We will watch patiently.

LVMH is not a one-off. I understand that angry French protesters are in their Paris C-Suite, but LVMH is not retreating to quiet, rarified salons as part of their public PR.

I’m sure Bernard Arnault has uttered more than one ‘Mon Dieu’ under his breath over today’s world, but his executives are in total alignment on this issue.

According to all inner-circle reports, Mr. Arnault’s children are very influential with their father in helping him understand today’s luxury consumers.

Pharrell Williams, now head of Louis Vuitton Men — and backed by the very deep pockets and total support of the LVMH Arnault family — delivered the most not-class-conscious fashion show I’ve ever seen on June 20.

And I know that Bernard Arnault was moved, when Pharell stood in front of him at the end of the show, removed his cap and crossed his heart with his hands, with a nod forward of his torso. I wasn’t the only Louis Vuitton fan weeping.

And Jay-Z was standing right next to him. What a guy!!! Arnault, I mean, not Jay-Z.

Admittedly, I have an emotional connection to LV Men and several of the LVMH brands, who I believe have “perfect-pitch branding”. Many people disagree with me and are convinced that Louis Vuitton is on the road to ruin.

I am so impacted by the June 20th LVM show, that when my spirit is depressed about the resurgence of white nationalism in America, I watch the show as a night star to keep me fighting against that evil tide. For me, the show was just glorious.

Seriously, the guy driving around the luggage cart all night on June 20, had a license plate that said ‘Liberty’.

We’re not accustomed to global luxury brands paying attention to such small details. Talk about building emotional connections with progressive-values clients.

There’s certainly a luxury brands customer committed to class differentiation.

With all the research I’ve been doing — with amazing AI research help — Miss Anne may be watching the kinds of historical differentiation between Paris and London that my AI research is uncovering. Who knows.

Does Gucci really want to do a complete 180-degree turn from Alessandro-Michele? He had heart, joy, spirit, irreverence at times. Anyone who writes that this Gucci campaign is ‘rebellious’ needs to be locked out of their laptop for 30 days.

On that note, Anne bids you ‘au revoir’. . . also ‘ciao’.

For someone who has been known to kiss the ground when her plane landed on Italian soil — that’s how much I love the Italians. Watching this Gucci renovation in progress has become more consequential in a post-Alessandro Michele Gucci world. ~ Anne