Gucci’s blockbuster new exhibition brings the Italian house down under

Olivia DeJonge headlines the Gucci Garden Archetypes opening night.

Olivia DeJonge, a guest of the Gucci exhibition. Picture: Bec Parsons

Gucci lit up Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum on Tuesday night for the opening of the Gucci Garden Archetypes exhibition, an immersive journey through the brand’s campaigns under the guidance of current creative director Alessandro Michele that is touring the world.

An electric atmosphere was underscored by Gucci-outfitted guests including Olivia DeJonge, Anderson Paak and Amy Shark as they journeyed through successive interactive worlds, each representing one of Michele’s distinctive advertising campaigns from seven years at the helm.

Originally conceived to celebrate 100 years of Gucci in 2021 and debuting in Florence, Archetypes has travelled to Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul before arriving in Sydney, where it is on display until January 15.

DeJonge returned to Australia for the event as she prepares to shoot her next film, The Trashers. It concludes a busy year for the co-star of Baz Luhrmann’s biopic Elvis. “It means so much,” she says of being back. “I’m so honoured I was able to come home and experience this.”

The Perth-raised actress, who chose a Gucci gown for the Cannes Elvis premiere, is becoming a favourite, sitting front row at September’s spring/summer ’23 show in Milan.

“It truly feels like stepping on to another planet – the energy pre show is always electric,” DeJonge says of a Gucci show under ­Michele.

Known for shifting fashion paradigms to embrace individuality and offbeat beauty, Michele appeared via video link the evening prior. Wearing a cobalt jumper, long black hair in pigtails and accoutred in his signature antique jewellery, Michele spoke of the process behind his multi-­layered, opulent clothing.

And on his cherised collections, he said, “the idea of living, collecting and accumulating objects, and that campaign, was designed because I have a special relationship to objects and I think that my work also means having a relationship to the physical objects surrounding us”.

Michele left parting thoughts on how he comes up with boundless ideas for Gucci, displayed in Archetypes.

“Creativity is like air, like gas – it’s difficult to describe. It is, of course, an immersive process,” he said. And one Australians can now experience first-hand.