There are all possible contradictions in Gucci’s Palace collection and all imaginable dichotomies. On the one hand, there is Gucci, an Italian brand with a century-long history, unmistakable stylistic codes, with Florence in its blood and a baggage of dreams that makes the hearts of young and old beat faster.
On the other hand, Palace Skateboards, a London-based streetwear brand born and bred in the 21st century that the less young may never have heard of.
The glue is the vibrant passion, the obsession – I would say – of Alessandro Michele for the street, a founding value – the latter – for the duo Lev Tanju and Gareth Skewis, co-founders of Palace. Thus, Palace Gucci becomes a symbol of a free, democratic fashion, without hierarchies, in which street, skate, sport, motorcycling, football and house music come together under the aegis of the power of the logo – a symbol of belonging and community.
Thus, it is that the double G of Gucci merges with the Tri-Ferg of Palace. But the collection goes beyond fashion and extends to two other brands: on the one hand Conforti, a historic company founded in Verona in 1912 by Silvio Conforti after winning a competition by presenting a masterpiece safe and which, for the occasion, has created a safe coated with the Palace Gucci monogram and produced in a limited edition of just 10 pieces; on the other hand, Moto Guzzi, the oldest motorbike manufacturer in Europe, founded in Genoa in 1921, which presents a limited edition of 50 examples of the V7 motorbike in which the tank and side bags feature Palace’s classic forest camouflage and are covered in GG embossed leather.
Among Palace Gucci’s contradictions is its distribution. Online from 21 October on Vault, the concept store conceived by Alessandro Michele as a dynamic and free creative space aimed at experimentation and open to constant reinterpretation, for the first time since its birth Vault debuts offline thanks to pop-up stores in Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Osaka and Bangkok. A union, that between Gucci and Palace, truly out of the ordinary, which subverts all the rules of contemporaneity and restores physicality to a fashion that understands, interprets, and promotes, everyday life.
