2025/01 Gucci – Endless Narratives

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Details:

Gucci

Endless Narratives

Spring-Summer 2025

Via Monte Napoleone 5/7, Milan

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Review:

by Peter Hamer

january 31, 2025

I have trouble recalling the last time a company explicitly announced its window concepts via a press release. Typically, you’d see something like that only when there’s an extraordinary collaboration for Milan Design Week—but never have I seen such a widely publicized window concept as Gucci’s “Endless Narratives.” From WWD to AD Italia to Pambianco, everyone talked about it on the same day. Comments on LinkedIn were equally perplexed, ranging from “what’s the point?” to “how is this news?” Frankly, I share the confusion. Mailing out photos of a display makes it almost pointless for me to go see it in person. And in my 15+ years of photographing store windows, I’ve learned that pictures are usually better than reality anyway.

But let’s give context to what “Endless Narratives” is supposed to be. According to AD Italia¹ and Wallpaper², Gucci collaborated with artist Luca Pignatelli to transform its store windows into some kind of abstract cultural commentary—mixing archival images and references meant to evoke a sense of timelessness. On Gucci’s own site, the project is described as an “ongoing conversation between the brand and the art world”³. Meanwhile, L’Officiel Italia⁴ underscores Pignatelli’s creative language—though, ironically, his name doesn’t appear in the physical display at all. Only the press materials give him credit.

Now, the De Sarno’s obsession with art? Well, that’s a choice. However, what I always say, teach, and preach in my consulting and lectures is this: a store is NOT a museum. Art exists to provoke an emotional response to an artist’s vision—it’s not there to push a product into a shopping bag. This is precisely why I’m a firm believer that fashion isn’t art. Fashion follows what’s happening around it; it can adopt certain movements or influences, but it isn’t itself pure art. That’s a different conversation for another time, though.

For all the press coverage this “Endless Narratives” concept received, it ends up disappointingly hollow. It highlights exactly what’s going on in certain corners of the industry right now: confusione totale. At a time when brands should be focused on value and genuine customer-centric initiatives, the display—and accompanying messaging—feels disconnected from real-world needs. Do you think this is what customers want, expect, or will remember about your brand? If so, what exactly are they supposed to remember? The product lacks research and innovation, the styling seems lost in translation from runway to store, and I’m still not sure what I should be looking at. Kudos to the artist, but again, his name is nowhere to be found in-store—only in the press release.

All in all, “Endless Narratives” is an expensive, linear, and frankly unsustainable approach. And this is how 2025 kicks off? Not great. To add to the confusion, running concurrently with this concept is an entirely different, plexiglass-laden window dedicated to a single sneaker. So if you’re “telling a story,” you might want to make sure it’s coherent. Because a good author always knows where the narrative is supposed to go—do you?

¹ “Gucci Endless Narratives: ecco le nuove vetrine in negozio.” AD Italia
² “Gucci unveils Endless Narratives window displays.” Wallpaper
³ “Unveiling Endless Narratives.” Gucci Official Site
⁴ “Gucci Endless Narratives, le vetrine dei negozi con l’artista Luca Pignatelli.” L’Officiel Italia