Gucci does… gaming?

Ah, the front row. The tightly-squeezed political battleground of poised editors, eagle-eyed buyers and Anna Wintour’s bob. The make-or-break for fashion wannabes, a seasonal second home for old-timers and, today, a day-out for guests from Fnatic – a leading organisation in eSports – who were sat on Gucci’s AW20 front row.

Today’s menswear show marked creative director Alessandro Michele’s fifth year at Gucci and the brand’s decision to rejoin the menswear schedule in Milan for the first time in three years. And in the spirit of change, perhaps Gucci’s unexpected guests mark the start of something new.

Since 2004, Fnatic has ​“helped shape the new world sport into a fast-growing phenomenon”, according to its website, while its professional gamers who attend over 27 international tournaments each year – across 20 games including League of Legends, Battlefield 4 and Fortnite – have won ​“thousands of tournaments”.

Gucci’s gamers in attendance included 23-year-old Martin Larsson from Sweden, 24-year-old Zdravets Galabov from Bulgaria, 20-year-old Slovenian Tim Lipovsek, 21-year-old Belgian Gabriel Rau and 20-year-old Oskar Boderek from Poland – all part of the League of Legends team which has historically gone on to make outstanding achievements in the eSports world.

The team has been crowned European League of Legends Champions a record five times and is the only team in League Championship Series history to have won every game in a season (18 – 0).

But – and let’s not two and FROW here – this is quite the leap from Gucci’s usual star-studded turnout. In the past Florence Welch, A$AP Rocky, Jared Leto and Saoirse Ronan have been Michele’s Muses-in-Chief with the best seats in the house.

So why the unexpected guests? Either Michele’s one hell of a secret gamer, or we could be witnessing the start of a techy 2020 for Gucci. Either way, we’ll be pressing X.