Demna's Gucci Was Bound to Succeed — It's In His Jeans
Is it a coincidence that "Demna" sounds similar to "denim?" Probably. But it's not a coincidence that the mononymous Georgian designer's transformation of Balenciaga hinged on some exceptional jeans. Nor is it a coincidence that thanks to some similarly darn good denim, Demna's Gucci is already off to a strong start.
Demna's debut Gucci collection, a coed Spring/Summer 2026 line titled "La Famiglia," debuted in late September as a surprise see-now, buy-now proposition, with a handful of key pieces available in limited numbers for a limited time at nearly a dozen international Gucci flagship stores. Of it all, one item stood out above all else. Or, more accurately, beneath.
Those wonderfully washed-out straight-leg jeans with the Gucci horsebit hooked beneath the pockets were an obvious high point from Demna's debut offering, somehow simultaneously fresh and familiar.
On one hand, they're a natty encapsulation of the stylistic direction in which Demna's Gucci is heading. But even on the surface, they're just really good jeans, as much a sign of the times as an approachable buy-in to the new Gucci.
It's particularly rare for luxury ready-to-wear ever to capture consumer attention enough to rival commonly consumed accessories like handbags and sneakers, but few luxury designers are as product-minded as Demna.
At Balenciaga, his sneakers singularly shaped trends and his loose-cut lived-in garments effectively predicted the modern youth-culture wardrobe, with his ginormous jeans connecting them all.
Really, Demna really doesn't get enough credit for influencing the state of denim. Would JNCO jeans be once again relevant or other luxury labels as interested in enormous pre-dirtied denim had he not set the ball rolling at Balenciaga? Not that Demna was first to realize the commercial possibility of jeans but he is possibly the only contemporary designer to really grasp the benefit of a signature trouser.
At Gucci, Demna is proving himself to again be ahead of the denim curve. His new Gucci jeans are not quite the skinny jeans he seemed to imply earlier this year, and so much the better. These are instead a modernization of the kinda-mature, kinda-bawdy jeans that Tom Ford popularized at Gucci decades prior but, with their dingy wash and relaxed leg, Demna's denim is firmly fixed in the here and now.
Cut from a pre-faded denim that's intended to pool on the shoe, admittedly far less aggressively than Demna's Balenciaga jeans, these pants go from good to great with the addition of two metal horsebits attached below the two front pockets, a tasteful update to a classic Gucci code that's both IYKYK branding and a distinct hit of visual flair.
It's all so obviously good that these four-figure jeans have become the hot-ticket grab for dudes in the know. Tellingly, many of the Demna Gucci customers who're sharing their purchases online are young men of the street-fashion sort, not likely the folks who might've purchased Gucci were it directed by, say, Sabato De Sarno.
This is a natural result of any cultish designer heading to a new house, of course: Phoebe Philo's fans immediately lined up to shop her eponymous luxury label upon launch and the Hedi boys wasted no time in following their idol from Saint Laurent to CELINE.
But Demna's new Gucci jeans aren't hitting only because his most ardent followers are doing what they do. That insider appeal only uplifts what's otherwise a plainly great pair of jeans, an urbane evolution of the whole grunge, indie sleaze thing that's always existed on menswear's cusp.
Demna's great gift has always been to identify the stuff that people truly want to wear, and then reframe, repackage, and renew. His Gucci jeans are this process made material.
We won't know whether Gucci's gambit paid off financially until next year, when Demna's debut collection releases in full. But the designer has already won the most crucial battle in fashion: creating clothing that people actually buy.
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