From a lipstick ad featuring a close-up of punk musician Dani Miller’s gap-toothed smile to runway looks with mascara “tears,” false-eyelash eyebrows, and glossy lips and lids on models of all genders, Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele’s vision for Gucci Beauty is invariably clever, inclusive, and subversive. As Thomas de Kluyver, Gucci’s global makeup consultant, puts it, “It’s about self-expression, identity, and fluidity.” During the film presentation of Aria, Michele’s opulent fall collection, both boys and girls walked the runway while applying lipstick and checking their reflections in glamorous gold compacts, simple gestures that defy conventional notions of beauty and manage to turn ordinary makeup objects into covetable accessories.
“There are so many different characters at Gucci,” de Kluyver says. “Sometimes they’re very natural, and it’s all about gorgeous, healthy…
