MEN WHO KNOW WHAT WOMEN WANT TOO

21st June 2018

While it is fair to say that women have a very personal insight into what their fellow females want from their jewellery, there are men out there who have an almost uncanny idea of what women want.

Alessandro Michele

Gucci used to be synonymous with sex. Under the tenure of Tom Ford, and then Frida Gianinni, it became known for taking a more risqué position on women’s fashion. Don’t forget this was a brand that got itself in hot water thanks to an advert featuring a woman’s pubic hair shaved into its iconic G logo. Prada it isn’t.

But the shock tactics got tired and Gucci took on the air of an embarrassing uncle making lewd comments at a family party.
Enter Alessandro Michele in 2015. This little-known name was announced as the brand’s creative director after Giannini’s sudden departure and a different type of Gucci began to emerge. Gone was the 90s seductress and in her place was the velvet-suited, bespectacled chic geek.

Sexy was out and sensuality was in. There were questions as to whether Michele would be working the same magic on the brand’s jewellery and watches.

The answer, which was given at the fair year later, was a resounding yes. Gone were the bamboo bezels and horsebit bracelets and in their places, as illustrated in the fabulous Le Marché des Merveilles were bees, hearts, stars, snakes and lions. The Gucci colours of red and white were there but coated in plexiglass, on top of which was a see-through quartz dial. All of this was accompanied by a campaign that had all the dreamy references of the ready-to-wear collections; those same beautifully ethereal girls who looked as though they had wandered in from a 1920s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream out on by a group of bohemians at a house party. Its jewellery was no different. The superlative craftsmanship and stone-setting was still in evidence but it was deployed making lions’ heads and skulls rather than petals and bows.

There is a sense that Michele is applying the same magpie irreverence to the watches and jewellery that he does to Gucci’s clothing. Everything is inspiration and there to be absorbed and refracted through his particular prism. His work takes in everything from post-modernist philosophy to Italian Renaissance art and Victorian fashion. Michele even collaborated with graffiti artist GucciGhost (real name Trevor Andrew) after seeing how he had been appropriating the Gucci logo, turning the iconic double Gs into the eyes of a cartoon spectre that can now be seen watch dials and as charms.

His insistence on creating something beautiful rather than designing specifically for men or women might go some way to explaining why he has created pieces that seem to capture the female imagination. Because he doesn’t see them as other but merely another part of his own being.

Michael Kors

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Michael Kors put a watch back on women’s wrists. Before he came along with his wonderfully brash oversized chronographs, women just weren’t interested; they had their smart phones for telling the time and wrist real estate was occupied by bracelets not watches.

When Kors started out – he got his break in 1981 after graduation from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology designing a line for elite Manhattan boutique Lothar’s before going it alone in 1983 – his ready-to-wear and accessories were designed in conjunction with each other. Despite this ethos, it wasn’t until 2004 that watches were added into the mix.

Although there were time-only options, it was the chronographs that captured the fashion zeitgeist. For starters making a woman’s watch a chronograph was, and still is, a rare thing. Generally speaking in both the luxury and fashion arena, chronographs are put in men’s sports watches. We’re talking Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, Bell & Ross’s aviation-inspired timepieces and Hublot’s Big Bang; it is still not really considered to be a woman’s complication.

Michael Kors changed all that. These watches tapped into the boyfriend trend – at cases of around 39mm they were definitely on the larger side – but they did it in a totally feminine way. Gold-plate, usually rose, was the overriding colour of the watches and there was more often than not some Swarovski crystal somewhere. And they were unapologetically “fashion”.

The idea of the fashion watch had previously had bad press; the underlying connotation being that these were cheaply made items that allowed people access to a brand they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Kors’s watches were well made – some of the signatures include adjust-o-matic bracaelet closure and etched case backs – but they were informed by the seasonal vagaries of trends. They were also keenly priced, which encouraged women to think of their watches in the same way they would their shoes or bags – as something that should be changed according to your outfit not just worn all the time regardless of the rest of your look.

Since then the collection has branched out to include more evening styles that owe a debt to the likes of Chopard and Baume & Mercier as well as more delicate time-only designs. It has even branched into the smartwatch sector with a style that combines a watch with technology in a way that brilliantly retains the brand’s fashion sensibilities.

Michael Kors is now one of the most well-known watch brands in the world, regularly ranking with such horological heavyweights as Rolex and Omega in popularity.

Kors may have put watches back on women’s wrist but his continued spirit of innovation has ensured that something bearing his name on the dial has continued to remain there.

CONTINUE READING

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