What started out as a nightmare depicting a “hideous” phantasm of a man would turn into the cultural phenomenon that is the creature from Frankenstein. Mary Shelley’s influence can be seen in cereal, movies, and even fashion, which at its core is an artform that draws inspiration from all sectors of life. Frankenstein—the last name of the doctor that created the monster in the books—is even a term in fashion referring to a garment that is put together with different patterns, fabrics, cutting, and sewing techniques often utilized by designer brands like Sacai, Junya Watanabe, McQueen, and Gucci, among others. In particular, Gucci’s autumn/winter 2018 collection under the creative direction by Alessandro Michele takes a deeper look into how humans are their own Dr. Frankenstein through constructing their identities with the powers of tech, Hollywood, and social media. This is similar to Shelley’s vision of the creature forming his personality and mind by those around him, and how society treats him. Her writing exposes human nature to be messy and not quite as accepting of those who are different from the status quo, similar to how Michele ran Gucci. Although fashion takes inspiration from all aspects of life, Mary Shelley’s exposé of human nature impacted all facets of fashion, but in particular, Alessandro Michele’s collection for Gucci for what it means to be human.
Michele’s work at Gucci was different from the others that came before him. Similarly to Dr. Frankenstein, they were visionaries in their own respects, even if others may have ostracized their ideas. Michele saw this vision of humanness and mortality in his shows and his designs. He saw that humans draw themselves by those around them and would go on to say,“We are all Dr. Frankensteins of our lives.” Those are the words that he used when describing his 2018 collection, which, in essence, is the human nature that Shelley was trying to portray in her writing, drawing inspiration from a multitude of ideas and interactions that shape your personality. The creature made his own by learning from those around him, reading, love and by how he was perceived. He learned from books that produced an “infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised [him] to ecstasy, [but also sunk him] into the lowest dejection” (Shelley 2, VII). Michele’s 2018 collection speaks on the truth about human nature as influence can invoke a positive feeling or also create dejections like how the creature reduced himself to the animals. In a way, originality is really quite rare in the fact that a population is undergoing self-regeneration through its surroundings.
The collection consisted of clashing layers, sweeping skirts, and avant-garde designs. Additionally, it drew inspiration from how bodies are formed, interpreted, and potentially remade, which would explain why a model was walking around with a head — a quintessential Gucci motif. Both Gucci and Frankenstein to this day are a mash-up of a bunch of different visions that somehow work and end up affecting how people dress. Everyone creates their own vision of themselves, like Dr. Frankenstein did.
