“Nostalgia will be the death of me” has basically become the unofficial motto of the internet, and honestly, it makes sense. We are living in a moment where everything we grew up with is either ending, shifting or being recycled in ways that hit weirdly hard. Stranger Things is coming to an end after almost ten years. Kylie Jenner has revived her “King Kylie” era, and overall, across social media, it feels like people are trying to recycle memories and early-internet aesthetics to produce a shared longing for a time when everything looked simpler: songs like Major Lazer’s Lean On or Zara Larsson’s Symphony, which we thought we had forgotten, have come back as the soundtrack to this collective nostalgia, along with oversaturated pictures, messy feeds, and unfiltered spontaneity. It’s a feeling that stretches across culture, and of course, fashion is a feeling too. Gucci's Pre-Fall collection, Generation Gucci, taps straight into this bittersweet mood with a lookbook that takes us back to the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
The lookbook is presented like a runway show that never actually happened, but it feels like looking at lost images from early 2000s Gucci under Tom Ford. The glossy, sexy, slightly sleazy vibe recalls that transition period between late 90s minimalism and early Y2K flash, when athletes like David Beckham were more like pop icons than just athletes, and hair gel and leather jackets somehow made sense together.
Just like back then, the looks are simple but undeniably sexy. Because yes, sometimes less is more. Tailored suits are worn on bare skin, pencil skirts paired with silk shirts left open, and asymmetric evening gowns plunge just enough to be bold. Leather catsuits, micro-python jackets, lace trousers, and silk dressing gowns add texture and attitude. Everything comes together thanks to the accessories and styling that make it feel so Demna: seductive sunglasses, slicked-back hair, oversized blazers, cropped jackets showing just a hint of skin, turtlenecks tucked into jeans, high-neck tees, and moto jackets.
But the deeper you look, the more references emerge. It’s not just Tom Ford; there’s Alessandro Michele’s florals, Frida Giannini’s woman-focused vibes, 70s sensuality, and 90s sleekness. Instead of just referencing one era, Demna blends them, remixing Gucci’s codes in a way that feels familiar yet completely new, like taking a photo today and slapping on a hyper-saturated filter to give it that 2015 vibe. Every detail, from prints to shapes to styling, nods to the past while still feeling completely current.
This isn’t the first time he’s done it. Remember il Bastardo, la Sciura, and all the archetypes he used in his S/S 2026 show to reveal the house’s many sides? With Generation Gucci, nostalgia works the same way, digging through the brand’s archive and visual codes, exploring familiar shapes, prints, and vibes, and seeing them through a contemporary lens to create a single cohesive vision.
Just like those TikTok edits that romanticise moments we didn’t even think twice about at the time, fashion keeps reinterpreting memories because culture is a cycle and survival depends on reinvention. Even if this collection hits that familiar ache, it’s not about going back; it’s about taking the past as raw material to create something new. By remixing memories and archives, Demna shows that fashion is cyclical: we miss the past, we rebuild it, we move on, and every new era leaves its mark for the next generations to come.
