Creative director Alessandro Michele and Gucci get erotic in ushering in Gucci's latest Aria campaign. The House Partnered up with fashion photography duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott (or otherwise, better known as Mert and Marcus) for its newest Gucci Ontology of Desire.
Cut to a hotel room in one of London's most prestigious institutions, The Savoy, and here we discover the highly erotic and voyeuristic tales that capture Gucci and Alessandro Michele's vision for the Maison's newest campaign endeavour. Highly stylised, androgynous and deeply philosophical with a little hint to BDSM and boudoir - the campaign sets out to explore the connection between the mind, body with sex as well as the intricacies between fetish, lust and human desire.
Gucci takes a deep dive into the world of fantasy and philosophy, going as far to reference the work of Sigmund Freud and Jean-Luc Nancy stating "our erotic relationship with the world overwhelms everything: artefacts, dreams, clothes. Knowledge itself becomes an object of desire. As a matter of fact, the etymological roots of philosophy (φιλεῖν « phileîn» meaning “to love” and σοφία «sophía» meaning “wisdom”) reveal a loving investment in what we want to know."
"So the books of Freud, Nancy and Butler describe the universe of desire, and more, they become objects of attraction themselves. As a consequence, words transfigure into an amorous lexicon. Wisdom offers itself as an erotic body to know and smell. The epistemic subject becomes an insatiable lover. Even words are clothes that we decide to wear, after all. Clothes that tie again mind and body in an erotic weaving that connects us to the flesh of the world."
The campaign stars prolific supermodel Kristen McMenamy as well as multi platinum Italian music group Måneskin, who all play various roles of sexual protagonists throughout the entire campaign. Highly tantalising and mesmerising, the campaign goes further to explore the parallels between primitive desires and sexual fantasies with a picturesque insinuations of foot fetishes, BDSM, dominant/submissive dynamics and home pornography - bringing us a modern day Eyes Wide Shut.
The full Gucci Aria campaign is now ready to explore on gucci.com and throughout all official Gucci social media channels.