Alessandro Michele drove the message home unsubtly, staging his show as a fairy-tale dream sequence, all relentlessly pink – tufted banquette seating; walls and curtains of mirrored squares, the latter strung vertically to shimmer with movement; an ominous, otherworldly fog heightening the disorientation. This was the setting for Michele’s nerdy, wacky, crazyville parade, a line-up that recalled the John Galliano of once upon a time, not in the clothes themselves but in the diverse cast of characters. “This is a way of talking about love and quirkiness,” Michele said. To that end, multiple references converged, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes in conflict. Throughout, he used language as liberally as any other design detail, at times merely scripting, ‘Loved’. Daring us to think of ‘modern future’ as something far afield from sterile minimalism, he splashed the words across a number of intensely wrought pieces, and he reminded us that life isn’t all fashion fun. One could even extract commerce from the so-witty-your-head-spins styling: Mega eyewear moment, folks? It was an adventure in storytelling by fashion, delivered with wit and skill. Yet at times the frenzy felt like something more than that of euphoric, maximalist fashion – the frenzy of what-next? Michele has earned every bit of the attention and praise lavished on him during his early fashion fame. His challenge is to figure out how to retain and develop his design ethos – inclusive, should he choose, of more tigers, snakes and whatever other fantastical motifs might fuel his expression, while keeping Gucci’s newly passionate audience enthralled.