Gucci defying societal norms one crooked tooth at a time
Gucci Beauty's campaign for the brand's first cosmetics launch under ex-creative director Alessandro Michele, which includes the shades of 58 lipsticks--aims to rewrite the rules of beauty. Michele's vision for the line, according to the brand, was to represent complete liberty and self-expression, the campaign "conveys a clear message that authentic beauty lies in imperfection." The entire situation demonstrates how deeply ingrained conventional beauty standards are. Society is getting used to women who look "different," but only in very specific ways. The only way for change to occur is for brands to use their platforms to demonstrate that beauty comes in many forms. And with Gucci's wide clientele, it is an excellent place to begin. Using makeup to accentuate natural beauty instead of as a shield to mask insecurities, the bright and bold colors of the lipsticks highlight the perfectly imperfect grins of the models. Crooked teeth, teeth gaps, and imperfect hues of white, weave the campaigns movement in a parallel direction of Guccis long history of defying societal norms. Campaigns including males styled in female clothing, and vice versa, the brand is known for its adventures approach to marketing and unconventional ideas, in doing this however it has preserved its historic aura and prestigious legacy. Still considered one of the biggest luxury powerhouses in the fashion and consumerism today, the idea of the campaign is to create a humanized point of view, however strange," Michele says. "But the strangeness is human, so it's beautiful."
The advertisement is not directed at anyone in particular, it is part of the brands movement to embrace evolutionary efforts to normalize human features and imperfect qualities.
The Gucci Ad works with bodies in a more microscopic view by zooming in on something as basic as peoples teeth. Smiles are the universal expression of happiness, and no matter how ones teeth are shaped it is a human impulse to smile.
The worldly tendency to perfect everything. Metal squares and wires to fix the degree of the things you use to chew food with, color coding used to identify general concepts (blue for boy, pink for girl), everything is in the constant stream of being "fixed" or "upgraded". Once things are embraced for what they are and beauty is found in the strange and common, a much more positive flow of energy would be felt across societies at a large.