Frida Giannini had images by Richard Avedon and Gian Paolo Barbieri on her mind when she was designing her spring / summer 2013 collection. Everything that was chic and heroic about the late 1960s and early 1970s, female icons like Veruschka, she said.
The result was a triumvirate of pitch-perfect trend hits. With high-octane colour, minimalism and the seasons go-to era of choice, could not have been more in step.
The mood was bright and uplifting. Her message clear she had stripped Gucci back to its modern essence, while capturing the optimistic elegance of a former decade. But at no point did this collection not look modern.
Out stepped the fuchsia first. A bold, spare statement in the form of a lean trouser suit with gently flaring legs, a form-fitting skirt and blouse with voluminous sleeves, slender tunics with flared sleeves and trousers to match and long lithe columns with a single ruffle at the neck or tumbling down the spine.
The show proceeded in blocks of colour - cobalt blue, emerald and spicy saffron interspersed with prints snake (another season favourite) and a beautiful large oriental bloom, a sea anemone taken from Japanese wallpaper.
As the proceedings turned to after dark, extravagant necklaces in jet decorated collarbones or a grid of sparkling black mesh crystal adorned the shoulders of a sharp little cocktail dress.
But it was the white evening gowns fluid, ankle-sweeping, plunging and striking in their simplicity that recalled Tom Fords seminal Gucci show at the creative apex of his tenure remoulded here, of course, in Gianninis inimitable feminine hand.
While Giannini continues to deliver, season after season, Gucci Woman to the World, this felt more like deliverance her creativity liberated rather than merely the next seasons new delivery.