Chelsea’s gallery district is pretty sleepy on most weekday mornings. So it was a bit of a commotion on Thursday when Gucci touched down in New York and took over a good stretch of West 22nd Street to stage its cruise show.
From their offices overlooking the street, the various neighbors and gallery assistants got a bird’s-eye view of Alessandro Michele’s new collection, staying glued to their windows and snapping pictures as a parade of models stomped into the building normally occupied by the Dia Art Foundation.
One such neighbor got a slightly better view.”Well, our office is across the street,” Alexander Wang said, propped on one of the cushioned armchairs in the front row, Joseph Altuzarra in the next one. “So it was an easy commute.” On the other side of the room, Karen Elson trotted over to her seat. “I’m just excited to see Alessandro have his New York debut,” she said. “I’m so honored he invited me to watch and I’m going to sing tonight at his party. I’m singing for my supper!”
Not too far away, two women associated with the film “Fifty Shades of Grey” were rather conspicuously seated near each other, star Dakota Johnson and director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who arrived separately with actor husband Aaron. Was there perhaps a hidden message in their appearance? Was Michele channeling Anastasia Steele? That’s not likely to be the case for the actress, who has not met a brand she doesn’t like, recently notching front-row appearances at Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show in New York, Dior and Calvin Klein.
The filmmaker, on the other hand, has been keeping an eye on the fledgling designer and his first two collections for the label.
“I’m really curious to see what’s gonna come out today,” she said. More to the point, was there a reason a whole “Fifty Shades” delegation turned up here?
“That’s just a pure, wonderful coincidence,” she said.