Gucci, Saint Laurent seek radical redo of fashion calendars

SOAVE, Italy (AP) — Gucci and Saint Laurent are two of the highest-profile luxury fashion houses to announce they will leave the fashion calendar behind, with its relentless four-times-a-year rhythm and shuttling of cadres of fashionistas between global capitals, where they squeeze shoulder to shoulder around runways for 15 breathless minutes.

The coronavirus lockdown, which has hit luxury fashion houses at their bottom line, has also given pause to rethink the pace of fashion, offering the possibility to return to less hectic, more considered periods of creativity and production — and perhaps consumption.

Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele imagines twice-yearly appointments — one in the fall and one in the spring — to present co-ed collections, getting away from the hyped-up calendar which has come to require preseason collections before the major women's and men's runway shows, and a one-off cruise collection, increasingly in exotic locations.