Gucci Stages Its Cruise Show at Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gucci presented its Cruise 2024 collection on 16 May 2023 at Gyeongbokgung, the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty, in the centre of Seoul. The models walked along the stone terraces and colonnades around the courtyard of Geunjeongjeon, the throne hall, after dark, with the building lit behind them.

Gyeongbokgung was first built in 1395 and is the most important of Seoul’s five palaces. Permission to stage a fashion show there is rare and was granted by Korea’s cultural heritage authorities; Gucci has supported the conservation of the palace. The show had originally been planned for November 2022 and was postponed after the crowd disaster in Itaewon.

The occasion was the 25th anniversary of Gucci’s first flagship store in the country, opened in 1998. It was also a recognition of what Korea had become for the luxury industry: one of the highest levels of spending per head in the world, and a source of global influence through its music, film and television. The front row made the point, with ambassadors of the house including the singer IU, Hanni of NewJeans and Kai of EXO, and a soundtrack by the composer Jung Jae-il, who wrote the music for Parasite and Squid Game.

The collection itself came at a moment of transition. Alessandro Michele had left the house the previous November and his successor, Sabato De Sarno, had not yet shown, so it was designed by the studio. It drew on Gucci’s archive from the late 1990s and early 2000s, and on the street style of Seoul: long leather coats over wide jeans, bomber jackets with evening skirts, wetsuit-like pieces, and boards for skating and surfing carried as accessories, a nod to the windsurfers and skaters of the Han River parks.

Gucci was not alone. Louis Vuitton had staged its own show on the Jamsugyo bridge over the Han River less than three weeks earlier, and Frieze had launched its Seoul art fair the previous September. Within nine months, the city had been confirmed as a capital of fashion and art in Asia.

The palace is one of the first places to visit in Seoul, and it is a short distance from Four Seasons Hotel Seoul.