Gucci’s show last week was less about its new fashions than about the models carrying replicas of their own severed heads (and one baby dragon) down the catwalk. The runway looks were so iconic that they had runaway success as an internet meme.
In the “Gucci Challenge,” Instagram models and stylists are recreating the decapitated head spectacle with a little help from their friends. If you don’t have a custom-made model of your own face, just borrow a friend with the same hairstyle and tuck them under your arm. They can hide the rest of their body behind your back as you smile for the camera.
Here it is in action:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfmBw_fBMX1/?utm_source=ig_embed
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfirqvoBw1O/?utm_source=ig_embed
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfjojSbFoqT/?utm_source=ig_embed
And you know what they say: Two heads are better than one.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfmt2xOhYAj/?utm_source=ig_embed
I knew design was cutthroat, but this is ridiculous—in the best possible way. The fashion world is feeling its collective Game of Thrones revenge fantasy this month, honey.
We don’t often think of high fashion as a hotbed of memes. Like memes, fashion has its own language, and its inside jokes can be inscrutable. Unlike memes, it tends to be exclusive, not democratic nor accessible. Expensive labels are more often mocked than celebrated in meme culture (the hate for Supreme is practically volcanic). But it’s not hard to understand the savage humor in the severed head gag, and the Gucci show made enough headlines to make this funny to a broader audience.
The meme still hasn’t caught on with the teens who usually do challenges, e.g. mannequins, Tide Pods, or the “Karma’s a Bitch” challenge, where kids transformed themselves from frumpy to fully made-up. Maybe like editorial fashion itself, the trend will take some time to trickle into the mainstream.
H/T Harper’s Bazaar