LUXURY MEMES

The #GucciChallenge Is Sweeping Instagram

Would you take the #GucciChallenge?


Four models at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show

Gucci may be the meme-ist fashion house around. After all, the brand once commission notable meme-makers to work their Instagram magic for a campaign called “#TFWGucci” meant to promote a line of watches. But the latest Gucci memes sweeping Instagram are organic, inspired by Alessandro Michele’s decision to send a few models down the runway carrying eerily life like replicas of their own heads as accessories.

Commissioning your own lifelike head may be a bit much for those inspired by the runway moment, but savvy street style stars have figured out how to get the look for less with the right angles and the help of a friend’s head. Indeed, W Contributing Fashion Editor Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert was one of the first to adapt the meme, which has started populating under the hashtag #GucciChallenge. First she got a little help from her sister Sara Battaglia, a fashion designer, and then posed with Maurizio Cattelan, the artist who most recently made headlines when the Guggenheim Museum offered up his solid gold toilet to Donald Trump’s White House.

Meanwhile, noted fashion editor and street style star Anna Dello Russo put her own spin on the meme by carrying around a duplicate of her own head that she just happened to have (indeed, Dello Russo has so many fashion curiosities in her closet that she recently decided to sell off many to the public).

Eventually Dello Russo and Battaglia ran into each other for the ultimated #GucciChallenge moment.

From there, the rest of the world got on board.

Even some of Instagram’s fashion illustrators are feeling inspired.

There is at least one notable fashionista you won’t be seeing partake in the meme. According to WWD, Giorgio Armani sidestepped calling out Gucci by name, but did register his disapproval of such meme-worthy runway stunts as severed heads. “No, I don’t want to be a part of this,” he told the site. “Fashion can’t be a means to have the media talk about you. We have to move and excite but without going overboard — it’s too easy. I have never wanted to trick consumers, and what I show on the runway is what customers can find in stores.”

Related: Gucci Is Donating $500,000 to the March for Our Lives

Go Backstage at Gucci’s Fall 2018 Fashion Show, Which Included Dragons, Decapitated Heads and Other Delightfully Shocking Visuals

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

Backstage at the Gucci Fall 2018 runway show at the Gucci Hub in Milan, Italy on Wednesday, February 21st. Photo by Jason Lloyd-Evans for W Magazine.

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