Demna Shuts Times Square for Gucci's First New York Cruise Show

Gucci closed Times Square on Saturday 16 May for Demna's first cruise show for the house, and for 30 minutes every screen in the square blinked in unison to sell a lifestyle that does not technically exist: Gucci Acqua, Gucci Life, Gucci gym memberships, even Gucci for your poodle.

The show carried a name: GucciCore. It sounds like a TikTok aesthetic, and that is the joke, though Demna insists it is a permanent collection, a wardrobe to be built on season after season. The brief, per the show notes, was a homecoming. Gucci opened its first international store on Fifth Avenue more than 70 years ago, and Demna wanted to place the house back at the centre of the city.

What did the runway look like?

Demna delivered a casting call of Manhattan archetypes. Stockbrokers in pinstripes strode past as if late for a meeting. Ladies who lunch drifted by in shearling coats, worn with a nonchalance that takes a trust fund to perfect. Skaters shuffled through in relaxed denim. Philanthropists and socialites floated in gowns and pantsuits, ready to chair a gala.

The influence of Robert Longo's Men in the Cities drawings hovered clearly in the background. The stated inspiration was the Gucci Galleria, the VIP-only space above the Fifth Avenue store in the 1980s, where every tribe of the city collided under one roof. Guests once entered with a specialised golden key; invitees on Saturday received a brass doppelgänger as their ticket.

Props brought humour. Models carried the debris of an actual day like regular commuters:

• iPhones held aloft and bodega bouquets
• car keys, a stack of books, yoga mats
• even a bitten apple

There were logo-ed sling totes, Horsebit heeled boots, metal stilettos and clutches with timepiece straps, but the real status symbol was a bunch of supermarket tulips.

Who walked and who watched?

The celebrity casting played the same game as the setting. Paris Hilton swapped her trademark blonde for brunette, channelling the 'mob wife' aesthetic, carrying a bag shaped like a Chinese takeaway box. Tom Brady strutted in a Terminator style, in an all-black leather motorcycle jacket and matching trousers. Cindy Crawford returned to the runway to close the show.

The new guard included Alex Consani, Anok Yai and Mariacarla Boscono, alongside Emily Ratajkowski and Candice Swanepoel. Front-row fixture Sabine Getty did not stay put; she walked. Kim Kardashian, Mariah Carey and Shawn Mendes watched from the audience.

What does this change for Gucci?

There is a serious point underneath the fun, and Demna knows it. Gucci needs to sell clothes, and a runway of wearable pinstripes, easy denim and shearling you could genuinely buy will meet that remit. Shutting Times Square and packing it with A-listers was the spectacle, but inside the buzz were items to covet. A limited GucciNY capsule dropped the very next morning, so the fantasy could be in your basket before the Insta-stories of the previous night left your feed.

It all felt like classic Demna. He took the most commercial patch of land on earth and turned it into high-octane theatre, then lured you into buying a coat that would fit effortlessly into your wardrobe. Demna called it doing the impossible, but with bright billboards, supermodels and a half-eaten apple, he may just have pulled it off — and if GucciCore really returns each season, this fever dream becomes a business model.