Gucci has unveiled the campaign for Demna’s first collection at the house, pairing a short film starring Kate Moss with portraits by Michal Chelbin and a cast that ranges from BTS to the NFL.
Jin of BTS, Shawn Mendes, EsDeeKid, Ningning of aespa, Rico Nasty, Tom Brady, Xiao Zhan, Lee Young Ae and Alex Consani appear in stills shot against a rustic Italian interior – a departure from the clean backdrops of Demna’s earlier Gucci image-making, closer to the house’s Florentine roots. The film, directed by Johan Renck, the Swedish director behind HBO’s “Chernobyl,” finds Moss lip-syncing to Chris Isaak’s baritone rendition of “Wicked Game” as a room of strangers wakes, pairs off and falls in love on the dance floor.
“Primavera means spring – a rebirth, a renaissance,” Gucci said. Chelbin’s images are intimate portraits in the spirit of a modern Renaissance, the company said, echoing the composition, posing and grandiosity of classical painting to build an iconography of the people who represent the new Gucci.
The collection debuted Feb. 27 at Milan Fashion Week, where Demna staged his first show for Gucci in a darkened Palazzo delle Scintille lined with marble statuary inspired by Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. The show took its name from Botticelli’s “Primavera,” and Moss closed it in a backless sequined gown – her first Gucci runway appearance in more than two decades. A curated selection went on sale the following week in a see-now, buy-now release that ran through March 31, ahead of the collection’s official global launch in July. “Gucci only exists when both are in sync,” Demna wrote in notes for the show.
The imagery leans on the collection’s dressier register: Jin in a leather motorsport jacket, Shawn Mendes in a shiny muscle T-shirt, Xiao Zhan in golden trousers, Rico Nasty in a cream fur coat with a leather handbag, Lee Young Ae in a fur shoulder wrap and Alex Consani in an asymmetrical purple sequined dress with a pearl-studded clutch.
The push comes as Kering works to reverse a slide at its biggest brand. Gucci sales fell 22 percent in 2025 and dropped another 14 percent in the first quarter, to 1.35 billion euros, with the house accounting for roughly 40 percent of group revenue. Demna, who left Balenciaga for Gucci in July 2025, was “exactly what Gucci needs,” Kering chairman François-Henri Pinault said at the time. Kering chief executive officer Luca de Meo, appointed last September, has said the brand is moving in the right direction, though analysts at ODDO BHF cautioned in April that “Gucci’s turnaround is not yet reflected in the numbers and its timing remains uncertain.”
The campaign extends a rapid-fire run of image-making since Demna’s arrival, following the Mert & Marcus “Beauty and the Bag” handbag effort starring Moss and Emily Ratajkowski and the designer’s own “Generation Gucci” portraits. The casting reads as a reach play – Gucci putting its most commercial collection in front of BTS fans, NFL viewers and Chinese cinema audiences at once as it rebuilds volume after two years of decline.
The campaign began rolling out Tuesday across Gucci’s digital channels, with a shop-the-collection capsule live on gucci.com. Ningning, meanwhile, has had a busy stretch beyond the shoot: Gucci named the aespa singer a global brand ambassador in April.
Images Courtesy of Gucci
In other brand campaign news, Julia Garner and Lil Yachty Trek to Mont Blanc for Loewe’s Fall 2026 Campaign
A Campaign Built for Multiple Cultural Audiences
Celebrity as a Global Language
“Primavera” is structured less like a conventional celebrity campaign than a network of cultural entry points. Its participants bring distinct audiences, geographies and media ecosystems to the same Gucci proposition, allowing the house to speak simultaneously to fashion consumers, music fans, sports followers and film audiences. That breadth is especially important for a luxury label seeking to restore cultural momentum without narrowing its identity to a single market or age group.
The casting also avoids a rigid hierarchy. Established figures sit alongside younger artists and models, creating a mix that feels deliberately cross-generational rather than nostalgic. For Gucci, this is a meaningful distinction. The brand’s historical strength has often been its ability to make different worlds appear connected through a recognizable visual code, whether that means celebrity, street culture, cinema or Italian craft.
For an international audience, the campaign’s appeal lies in its accessibility. Viewers may arrive through a favorite performer or athlete, then encounter a broader fashion narrative shaped by the collection. In that sense, the cast is not simply promotional support. It is part of the campaign’s distribution strategy, extending Gucci’s presence through the communities and platforms surrounding each participant.
A More Cinematic Form of Fashion Storytelling
Emotion Over Product Demonstration
Luxury campaigns increasingly need to do more than present a seasonal wardrobe. They must establish a mood strong enough to travel across social platforms, editorial pages and retail channels without losing coherence. “Primavera” approaches that challenge through atmosphere, using an enclosed setting, music and a sense of shared anticipation to turn fashion imagery into a compact emotional narrative.
That approach gives the collection an identity beyond individual looks. Rather than treating clothing as a sequence of isolated products, the campaign places it within a world of intimacy, performance and ritual. The effect is particularly suited to Gucci, a house whose most durable image-making has often balanced glamour with eccentricity and romance.
The use of portraiture alongside moving image is equally significant. Still photographs provide the clarity needed for editorial and commercial circulation, while film creates a more immersive point of view. Together, the formats allow the campaign to function at several speeds: a single image can command attention in a feed, while the film rewards viewers who spend more time with the story. This layered structure gives “Primavera” a longer life than a standard seasonal launch.
What the Campaign Means for Gucci's New Chapter
Building Recognition Before Results
Early campaigns under a new creative director carry unusual weight because they establish the visual rules through which audiences will read everything that follows. With “Primavera,” Gucci is beginning to define a public-facing language for Demna’s tenure: theatrical but not detached, polished but rooted in character, and expansive enough to accommodate a wide range of personalities.
The campaign also illustrates the importance of consistency in a reset period. A luxury turnaround cannot rely on a single runway moment or one viral product. It requires repeated signals across fashion, advertising, retail and celebrity dressing so that consumers can recognize a coherent point of view. Gucci’s recent succession of campaigns suggests an effort to build that recognition quickly, while allowing each project to emphasize a different part of the house’s offer.
For New York’s fashion audience, where brand messaging is assessed through both creative credibility and commercial relevance, the question will be whether this world translates beyond launch imagery. The collection’s success will depend on how convincingly its attitude appears in stores, on red carpets and in everyday wardrobes. “Primavera” provides the opening image, but its real test is whether it can make Gucci feel newly desirable over time.
