#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci Experiment - Men's Folio
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#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci Experiment

  • By Charmaine Tan

#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci ExperimentEvery week, we delve deep into the Dropbox or Google Drive folders sent by brands (or as they call it, a Press Folder) to find something unexpected, desirable and a little bit off-brand. Here we have Gucci’s most recent collaboration with skate brand Palace.

The collaboration juggernaut strikes again, this time with London streetwear brand Palace Skateboards. Leveraging on Gucci Vault’s experimental freedom, this new partnership discovers similarities in two seemingly clashing worlds of design, bringing Gucci into the cultural spotlight, and flaunting Palace in a new light under the warm embrace of fashion’s next generation.

Through a range of garments that combine different creative worlds, Palace echoes Gucci’s heritage and legacy in cultivating a more open and free space for self expression — inherently Italian, boldly British, fortified anew. A defining underground force of men’s fashion in the 2010s, Palace looked into its back-catalogue for inspiration, combining with Gucci’s cross-generational influence on youth culture to dress the street — a lively place of particular fascination for Alessandro Michele.

#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci ExperimentIn a collection that encompasses accessories and clothing for all genders (including Palace’s debut women’s ready-to-wear designs), the road, rodeo, skate and sport, all fuse together to reflect the multifaceted identity of modern street culture — bits of soccer, house music, and motorbike-riding can all be found within this tasteful ode to the haphazard creativity of the youth.

#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci ExperimentHarnessing the power of the logo, or here a badge of belonging and a symbol of community, Michele fuses the double-G of Gucci with Palace’s Tri-Ferg. The Gucci Horsebit loafer — a staple of a 2000s club uniform — is reinvented with a dancing Palace ‘P’ charm, an emblem that also infiltrates Gucci’s iconic monogram canvas. Soccer tees, denims, and tracksuits of Palace’s usual repertoire are also present, while duffles reshaped with the pyramidal form of the Tri-Ferg and the monogram recolored in bubblegum pink, camouflage or baby blue, all reimagine Gucci’s heritage.

#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci ExperimentAll these sit side by side with coveted epitomes of high-end streetwear, such as the shearling jacket or the two-piece motorbike suit, as well as with unexpected collectables. But if you are a true fan of luxury streetwear, this experiment should fascinate even more with how it goes above and beyond the kind of unexpected pairings we are accustomed to with creations made even beyond the fashion frontier.

#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci ExperimentThe Palace Gucci collection also ignited a partnership with Moto Guzzi, an Italian motorcycle brand, sparking a limited-edition of the iconic V7 motorbike of 50 pieces. The three brands blend on a tank ‘dressed’ in Palace’s classic woodland camo and upholstered in GG embossed leather, the Palace Gucci collaborative monogram plastered over a retro-infused motorbike model revamped for today.

#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci ExperimentIn a wry and witty nod to the name and notion of the ‘Vault’, a dual-branded Palace Gucci safe recalling the look of Gucci’s classic travel trunks is also proposed, clad in the Palace Gucci monogram and produced by Conforti with only a limited edition of 10 worldwide.

#TheUnexpectedFind: The Palace Gucci ExperimentFilmed by Max Siedentopf, the campaign expands on the sense of out-of-your-worldness to capture the essence of this unexpected brand union. Seems like there’s nothing that can stop Michele from doing the most, surprising the world with every turn of his creative experimentation.

Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our October 2022 issue!