House of Gucci gets the Hollywood treatment
House of Gucci, the latest sartorial blockbuster from legendary director Sir Ridley Scott, offers a peek inside one of the world’s most recognisable fashion houses.
Where would one even begin sourcing costumes for a movie about Gucci, the century-old brand that’s transcended fashion industry fame to become a pop culture behemoth? That question was posed to legendary director Sir Ridley Scott and costume designer Janty Yates when the two began working together on the upcoming film, House of Gucci.
Yates and Scott’s professional relationship began with 2000s Gladiator, which earned Yates an Academy Award for Costume Design, and their resulting portfolio of blockbuster collaborations speaks to an enduring creative partnership. Films such as Robin Hood and The Martian showed Yates’s ability to channel various different time periods, but embodying the excess of 1980s Italian fashion for House of Gucci presented a new, unprecedented challenge for the designer – especially when the film was unexpectedly green-lit after a period languishing in development limbo for years before production officially started in 2020.
“I’d been sent the script the year before, and I got my Italian crew wound up and said: ‘We’re going to start this!’ I went to the Gucci Museum in Florence [for research], but the film wasn’t going to happen then,” Yates says.
“We did another film together instead, The Last Duel. Lo and behold, [Scott] was up for doing it directly afterwards. We just went from one to the next, which was extraordinary.”
Given the riveting real-life history of the Gucci family, House of Gucci is far from a superficial tale. The film focuses on the life and crimes of Italian socialite Patrizia Reggiani, who married heir Maurizio Gucci before infamously orchestrating his murder after their 1994 divorce. It’s a shocking case that few outside of Italy are familiar with, but given Gucci’s permanent standing in the cultural zeitgeist, it was only a matter of time before it received the Hollywood treatment.
Lady Gaga portrays Reggiani – her second major film role following her Oscar-nominated turn in 2018’s A Star Is Born – while towering heartthrob Adam Driver, also known as the internet’s boyfriend, plays Maurizio Gucci. Current Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele’s good friend and collaborator Jared Leto also appears as businessman Paolo Gucci alongside Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino. Salma Hayek, the wife of current Gucci owner and Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault, has a supporting role.
“We all knew about Gianni Versace being shot on his doorstep because that was in Miami, but nobody really knew about Maurizio Gucci,” Yates says.
“I think it’s going to shock a lot of people that Patrizia actually had him killed. There’s nothing fictional about our film, [it’s] all more or less fact.”
Certain members of the Gucci family voiced their hesitancy about the project, but support came from other areas of the fashion world.
The house of Gucci itself, now owned by multi-billion dollar luxury conglomerate Kering, provided several costumes for Gaga, who Yates affectionately calls ‘LG’. “I’m sorry, I can’t call her Lady Gaga, and I never called her Stefani [Germanotta], but everybody knows her as LG,” she says with a laugh.
“Gucci couldn’t have been more helpful. It shipped the outfits to LA, and we fitted them all on LG in one Zoom for five hours, and she fit them perfectly. We used every handbag we were given by Gucci.”
Scott’s mission was to keep the fashion as true to Reggiani’s real-life style as possible and add a dash of film-noir flair. He asked Yates to reference the glamorous 60s Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida when creating looks for Gaga, instead of going in the direction of what Yates describes as “Joan Collins in Dynasty”.
“I was kind of nervous to approach this, but in our first-ever Zoom with Ridley and Giannina [producer Lady Giannina Scott, Scott’s wife] present, LG said: ‘I want to dress like my mother.’ That was just the best, the fact that she wanted to dress like her mother, and that her mother is Italian,” Yates recalls.
“So we were able to forge ahead with the cutting room. We covered all aspects; we did long dresses, we did suits, we did trousers, we did coats, we did regular day dresses, all in beautiful fabrics. We had to think everything through with a fine toothcomb … I’d say my cutter made 45 to 50 outfits.”
The film touches on Tom Ford’s pared-back reinvention of Gucci in the mid-90s, but a vast number of scenes take place in the years prior, and Reggiani’s wardrobe needed to reflect the excess that Gucci was then known for. The brand’s famous ‘GG Supreme’ monogram is incorporated in some looks, but Reggiani was also a fan of Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent, so Yates and her team worked to channel the work of those designers on screen, too.
This toothcomb approach resulted in an unprecedented number of fittings; Yates estimates around 50 hours, which is “kind of unheard of in a film, but [Gaga] wanted to get everything right”
Since jewellery was also vital in Reggiani’s wardrobe, it was important for Yates to nail the specifics – all the way from era-reminiscent costume pieces worn by Reggiani in her daily life to the finest regalia in her collection, which accumulates as her wealth increases.
“We were loaned the most glorious pieces of jewellery by Bulgari, and we were also lent a fabulous selection by Boucheron. However, for day-to-day, [Gaga] would choose from this enormous selection of costume jewellery … she would never even repeat an earring. We’d put on at least two necklaces, there would be at least two or three bracelets on each wrist, but for rings, she liked to keep her hands free. Once a piece of jewellery had been used in a scene, it would be packed away, never to be seen again.”
Just like her stage outfits, Gaga approached each unique costume methodically and with a photographic memory.
“Everything would have to be deliberated on – the shoes, the handbags, all the accessories. For example: ‘Would I wear that if I was meeting Domenico De Sole [the former CEO of Gucci Group] for lunch? Would I wear that if I was picking up my child from school?’”
This aforementioned fine toothcomb approach resulted in an unprecedented number of fittings; Yates estimates around 50 hours, which is “kind of unheard of in a film, but [Gaga] wanted to get everything right”.
The multi- hyphenate performer also opened her personal wardrobe archive for Yates and the costume department to sample from, though some of the looks were “just a bit too extreme, if you can imagine! But it was great, absolutely marvellous, she couldn’t have been more cooperative.”
The wandering mind imagines Reggiani ending up in some ‘signature Gaga’ outfits – think archival Alexander McQueen, or perhaps a dramatic Philip Treacy headpiece – but eager fans will have to wait until the film’s official release to go scouting for double-ups.
When asked about the high-level secrecy surrounding the film’s release, and anticipation from both fashion aficionados and Lady Gaga’s ‘Little Monsters’ alike, Yates says that things felt far from private on the Italian set.
“I had no idea that from your point of view the film was shrouded in secrecy because frankly, the minute [Gaga] walked out of her trailer every day, there’d be paparazzi in the trees, they’d be on top of buildings, or way over the mountains with the biggest, longest lenses, and everything would be online within seconds … but as our producer said, ‘any publicity is good publicity’.”
Having Gucci’s assistance would be an invaluable asset for any costume department, but for Yates and her team, the support was instrumental. The finished product is an on-screen wardrobe that mirrors the maximalism, mystique and melodrama of the Gucci family – right down to the last Horsebit loafer.
House of Gucci is in cinemas on December 26.
This article appears in the December issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout