Following the thread of our In Vogue: The 1990s podcast, we are closing out the year and heading into the new one with a series of newly digitized archival shows from the decade that fashion can’t—and won’t—let go of. Designed by Tom Ford, Gucci’s spring 1999 ready-to-wear collection was presented in October 1998, in Milan.
Tom Ford’s breakthrough Gucci moment was his fall 1995 collection of velvet suits and acid green silks that evoked the louche decadence of Studio 54. That 15-minute show made Gucci synonymous with s-e-x, and it shot Ford to fame.
Three years later the public was still clamoring for “more, more, more.” Ford? Not so much. “After eight knockout seasons he had reached a creative roadblock,” reported Vogue in a 1999 profile. “It wasn’t that the master of timing had lost his touch with the public. Far from it. He was in a predicament most designers would love to have. His vision of cool, untouchable, hard-edged sex was still trendy, and Gucci’s hip-huggers, snaffle-bit shoes, and fox-fur chubbies were still must-buys. But Ford, who put the sophisticated yawn into clothes, was bored with his own creations.”
That ennui seeped into Ford’s fall 1998 collection for Gucci, but the agile designer was back on track for spring 1999 when he ditched minimalism and early-’60s Jackie O. references in favor of a Summer of Love vibe.
Ford figuratively let his hair down and embraced an earthier sensuality—not that there was any Woodstockian mud involved: Ford described the aesthetic as “Las Vegas hippie.” “Ciao Studio 54; hello Cher!” quipped journalist Michele Ingrassia.
There was no question that Gucci hippies were haute and hot. They wore teeny-weeny bikinis in the same color-popping floral used on ruffled jersey dresses. (Ford returned to “the garden” for his namesake collection for spring 2021.) At the time the fringe, the mirror-work tops, and the heady floral prints seemed like a fun bohemian romp; twenty years later the beaded shoes, suede boots, and embellished jeans read differently. They clearly borrow, without credit, from Indigenous and African craft traditions.
Vogue deemed the collection “a more colorful and upbeat take on sexiness that goes way beyond minimalism.” “These are eclectic, eccentric, and—I hate to use the word—happy clothes,” Ford told The Los Angeles Times.
