For the pre-fall 2016 Gucci collection, creative director Alessandro Michele, set the mood staging a presentation in the sprawling showroom covered in a pop-inspired pink wallpaper printed with flying herons. The collection featured feathery bombers, dresses, and bags, with lavish appliqués, intricate embroideries, and shining patchworks. They were joined by a cornucopia of butterflies, ants, snakes, tigers, swallows, kittens, trees of life, tropical foliage, strawberries, moons, and stars.

The collection was a cohesive continuum of previous seasons, fueled by Michele’s emotional interpretation of historic and intellectual references.

Glamorous intarsia fur coats in bright colors were paired with demure, pleated midi skirts printed with a carriage motif evocative of an 18th-century pattern. Fairy evening dresses in tiered tulle embroidered with whimsical patchworks, and oversize pearls were scattered on the heels of  spiky gladiator sandals. A slim shearling coat came bonded in a romantic floral jacquard, complete with an astrakhan collar, thick mink cuffs, and bejeweled frogging.

Denim too came crocheted with embroideries; while leather bombers and matching pleated skirts shimmered with metallic accents.