You’ve been working as creative director at Gucci for almost three years now, and are at the head of one of the strongest brand revivals of the past decade. Since taking on your role, what have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced?

I became creative director after years of working on products and not on ideas, so the biggest challenge for me has been to work with an authentic thinking and to stay true to it. My biggest learning has been that to be who you are and to tell your point of view gives you back a lot of energy and great satisfactions.

The fashion industry has been especially turbulent in recent years. What do you think about the current state of the industry and what do you believe is one of the biggest issues facing the industry today?

I think that fashion is in a crucial moment. There is a need for authenticity, for new languages, for a change.

The aesthetic you have crafted at Gucci has embraced the rise of streetwear. This word is often thrown around. How do you feel about the word “streetwear” and how does it relate to your design ethos at Gucci?

Streetwear is a powerful word, which sometimes is trivialized. For me streetwear means life, because it is what you wear when you go outside. Nowadays we don’t have or have to respect dress codes as much as we used to and it is on the streets where you wear anything you want. So for me streetwear is all I do, because I can even decide to wear a gown on the streets. Streetwear is life, it is everything.

What are your short-term and long-term goals? Both personally and in your role at Gucci.

They are the same from a personal and professional point of view. I want to preserve my being, my human part, my authenticity as Alessandro.

What has been your highlight of 2017?

To go on fearlessly and to do this job in an authentic way. To continue seeing things that I want to see in the way that I want to see them.