Fashion FOMO becomes the pulse of Demna’s pre fall 2026 lookbook.
Gucci’s Pre Fall 2026 collection arrived in the same surprising way Demna has approached every chapter of his tenure so far. It appeared suddenly in a lookbook that the designer photographed himself, a set of images built around the idea of an imaginary Gucci show that never actually happened. The result is a portrait of a house in transition, shaped as much by memory as by instinct. It is also the clearest expression yet of Demna’s fixation with desire and the emotional logic that drives it.
Pre Fall takes the fashion FOMO philosophy that Demna describes as that feeling when you see something you absolutely do not need but still must have, and makes it tangible. If the September collection served as a bridge and a research study into Gucci archetypes, this second chapter is more openly expressive. The Ford influence is unmistakable as the Pre Fall look is reminiscent of Tom Ford’s 1996 lighting, echoing the single spotlight that defined a very specific moment in Gucci’s history. The lookbook feels like a reconstruction of a show that lived more in collective memory than in official archives, shaped by Demna’s own longstanding fascination with that era.
The opening look, a powder pink suit in stretch silk faille, is cut closer to the body than anything Demna ever did at Balenciaga or Vetements, where oversized proportions were a defining pillar of his work. Pencil skirts follow in fabrics rebuilt from archival sources, though with the slight alteration that comes from decades of technological change. Throughout the collection, materials like canvas, suede, devoré velvet and scuba suggest the seventies and the nineties without tipping into them. What ties it together is an emerging Gucci silhouette that is sharp, sensual and clean.
As he played with familiar seventies references and the house’s classic signatures, from the GG motif to the Web stripe, Demna pushed further into his interest in the Ford era and pared the aesthetic back to something more minimal and light. Lightness becomes a defining idea in the collection and it guides both the structure and the sensibility of the clothes. The pieces that seem visually substantial are surprisingly weightless in hand, from a coat crafted from black feathers stitched into mousseline to denim that is pared back to its essentials, with internal pockets removed to soften the structure, while track silhouettes are reworked in airy cashmere silk jersey.
Demna’s personal involvement becomes the connective thread that forms the collection’s character in the lookbook photographed by himself. Many of the pieces originate from his own personal desire, like the deep V neck T shirts that trace back to a silhouette he remembers wanting as a teenager, or the ballet flats produced in sizes sure to fit himself. Demna sees himself as both creator and consumer and that dual perspective shapes the work with unusual intimacy.
Pre Fall feels like Demna laying down the early lines of a story that is only just beginning. The collection offers enough clarity to suggest where Gucci is heading while still holding something back. Anticipation is rising as the full definition will come in February, when he finally presents his first Gucci runway.
PHOTO CREDIT: Vogue.
