Gucci Makes Good TV (Especially with Gus Van Sant)

Earth's current (and, hopefully, diminishing) problems forced a rethink in the fashion industry. The usual runway calendar stuttered to a halt – perhaps indefinitely so. Brands had a back catalogue of new product to release upon a world that wasn't really dressing up that much. They had to get people excited. They had to do all of this without leaning on the usual star-studded experimental theatre that modern fashion shows have become. They had to get imaginative.

That's never really been a problem for Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele: a man that's remoulded one of Italy's oldest fashion houses into a bookish homage to a Studio 54 party at a haunted private school in the Alps. Quite the combo. It is also ongoing, too. The label continues to shape-shift. It is dynamic. The only thing one can expect from Gucci is, well, something unexpected.

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So when the announcement came, there was an all-knowing, eyes closed 'ah yes, of course' from fashion's punditry class: nobody could've foresaw a seven-part TV series co-directed with Gus Van Sant as part of a mini film festival (GucciFest, naturally). And yet it was in plain sight.

What's more, in a year of really, really great TV – and with lots and lots of time to watch it – Ouverture of Something that Never Ended (the name given to Gucci's puzzling advance into the world of television) stands alone, but still part of the upward trend in onscreen quality. Just don't expect it to be a neatly tied-up package like an episode of Peep Show.

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In fact, the series is distinctively Van Santian in that it's really quite abstract. We follow an average day in the life of Silvia Calderoni, in which every day is seemingly a Seventies psychodrama set among a glittering, almost-recognisable version of Rome. The actor-activist trots around a bohemian flat share in various states of Guccification. The TV, a passive speaker that provides the background noise, begins to talk to Calderoni directly, about gender, about queerness, about revolution. Then, it's onto the sights of this city, its denizens predisposed to sweater vests and lamé, and our protagonist meets many famous faces along the way in post offices, theatres and cafes; people like philosopher Paul B. Preciado, and Gucci (and the Top 40's) favourite in Harry Styles, and nascent British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks, among others. The echoes of the label's usual front rows are there, but louder, because we're afforded more time with such stars than a step-and-repeat could ever afford. Add in a soundtrack by Billie Eilish, and here lies a TV series that ticks all the hallmarks of good TV: there's good talent (veterans and neophytes), good clothes, and good music. Good intentions too, in that Gucci has used its platform, and the mini-series, to showcase the work of other up-and-coming designers like Ahluwalia, Bianca Saunders and Stefan Cooke in other shorts as part of GucciFest.

An Ouverture of Something that Never Ended is, at its core, a fashion show. But by being forced to vacate the cloisters of Westminster, or one such other impressive runway venue, Gucci has escaped the shackles a traditional show enchains. Here, we've got a fully-realised world in which we can get lost in. There are sights, and sounds, and line of sight that isn't cluttered by a sea of glowing iPhone screens held aloft to Instagram Story a passing model. It's just you, Gus Van Sant and Gucci – and that makes for some quality time spent in front of the TV.