Like Sofia Coppola or Bret Easton Ellis, Gucci has a thematic obsession with the floaty ennui of the idle rich, clacking about from party venue to party venue. Previous adverts have included the Christiane F.-inspired, morning-after-the-night-before Hotel in Berlin bum rush and the slow-mo vision of The Mod Squad throwing shapes on the dance floor. In its new autumn/winter campaign, the action has moved from Germany to the artificial grandeur of Tokyo.
We meet a trio of friends (two girls and a guy, like an haute version of Human League) blowing bubbles and dressed in a heady bricolage of blood red, art deco, diamond-shaped dresses, sequined Gaudi-esque skirts and Velma Dinkley glasses. As soon as they enter a vehicle that resembles the Christmas Coca-Cola truck (alight with Japanese signage and twinkly lights), it feels as if things have gone full Alessandro Michele. They head to their destination: an arcade to play games and, um, blow some more bubbles. A melancholy undertow persists, courtesy of the soundtrack (Pretender by Black Marble, a doom synth number from 2012) and the subtitles that appear Karaoke-like at the bottom of the screen (random phrases of disenfranchisement such as: “I don’t believe in chance”). Here the transfixing beauty of an ephemeral bubble becomes a metaphor for the temporary halcyon days of #SquadGucci.
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