“Spoiled and Bratty and Amazing”: Dara Reviews Demna’s Gucci Debut

I just landed in Milan and no time for a fashion shower, I’m running late to see Demna’s first offering for the house of Gucci at Palazzo Mezzanotte, or the Italian stock exchange. The fashion disruptor and former creative director of Balenciaga closes off the first night of Milan Fashion Week, not with a typical show of course, but a premiere of The Tiger, a Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn-directed short film starring the likes of Demi Moore, Elliot Page and Keke Palmer. Light work. I’m in traffic and scroll past Alex Consani strutting around the entrance in a fur coat and not much else from the “La Famiglia” lookbook that just dropped so I tell the driver to floor it. I refuse to miss this MAJOR fashion MOMENT! Luckily I make it just in time before the doors shut and the credits start rolling. In the car after the show, I call Taylore back at Interview HQ for a quick debrief. I love cinema!

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TUESDAY 8:42 PM SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 MILAN

TAYLORE SCARABELLI: Hi! Where are you?

DARA: I’m in a cab going back to my hotel, hopefully to have some dinner.

SCARABELLI: That sounds like a good plan. How was the Gucci debut? Or the premiere I guess…

DARA: I mean, someone told me that they built out this entire theater just for the screening, which makes sense. It was very fashion show. It was all brown velvet inside.

SCARABELLI: Wow.

DARA: Yeah, it was kind of like the Oscars or something.

SCARABELLI: With a major brown carpet. I saw the livestream for a sec. I was like, “Oh, hey Ed Norton.”

DARA: Yeah, Ed Norton’s in the movie. I got there a little bit late. I rushed in and took my seat, and then there was a wall of suited security men in front of us, and they were blocking a row off and we were like, “Who’s going to show up?” And then Demi Moore appeared in a gold sequin gown and then she sat next to Gwyneth Paltrow, who I didn’t realize was there the whole time.

SCARABELLI: You missed the star-studded entrance. So were they wearing clothes from the lookbook?

DARA: Yeah. Demi was wearing a gown that she wears in the movie, and Alex Consani was in her La Bomba look.

SCARABELLI: Oh, I love. No one ever does that. Oh shit, Gucci just said they would send me the video. 

DARA: You can watch it after and let me know if you got it. [Laughs] There was a girl who I unfortunately did not recognize who was wearing the L’Influencer look. That was a highlight. I hope she was a real influencer. 

SCARABELLI: So the film was a little conceptual?

DARA: I think so. We all sat down in this brown velvet theater, and the curtains closed and then they reopened and the screen replaced the doorways, and they started projecting the movie. The movie was directed by Spike Jonze and—

SCARABELLI: Halina Reijn.

DARA: Yes. And it opens with a Doechii song and Demi Moore having a mental breakdown in a gold sequin gown.

SCARABELLI: As she does. Gorgeous.

DARA: She’s in some fab mansion. And then we see some shots of her portrait in a frame, and we realize that she’s Barbara Gucci, the heir of the house, and she’s preparing to preview her collection to a writer from Vanity Fair who is very intimidating and foreboding. 

SCARABELLI: Played by?

DARA: Ed Harris. And her family is there because Gucci is a family business. Elliot Page plays her son, a bratty guy who’s a junior executive or something. He thinks he’s a big shot. And Ed Norton plays her stepson from a previous marriage. And it’s her birthday dinner.

SCARABELLI: Okay, wow. So it’s like House of Gucci, reimagined.

DARA: Yeah, it’s House of Gucci down. And Keke Palmer plays the daughter. It’s a little bit of a dysfunctional family vibe. Keke Palmer’s girlfriend has some tincture that then finds its way into everyone’s champagne glasses and chaos ensues.

SCARABELLI: I wonder if this foreshadows some future projects, because we know a lot of brands have been dipping into producing films like Prada and Saint Laurent. 

DARA: And Miu Miu.

SCARABELLI: And Chanel, both brands are supporting female filmmakers.

DARA: Yeah, cinema right now is maintaining the fantasy and surrealism of what fashion campaigns and editorials used to be. It’s not just glamorous. It can be other things. And the film was very self-effacing in that way. 

SCARABELLI: And to get such powerhouse directors to not only work on this, but collaborate is a huge flex.

DARA: This cast and these directors, it was pretty wild actually.

SCARABELLI: It must have been quite expensive.

DARA: I’m sure. It was actually really kind of amazing to see the joining of the worlds, seeing Alex Consani and Kendall Jenner act alongside Demi Moore.

SCARABELLI: That’s cool. How did they do?

DARA: They both tore.

SCARABELLI: Do you mean that?

DARA: I mean, they deliver one sassy line each. I saw Alex after, and she said that she was just describing her look to someone and they overheard her, and so they gave her that line. They sort of let her improv.

SCARABELLI: We love. 

DARA: But the scene is amazing. All the models are on pedestals outside the Gucci Mansion wearing long black, straight wigs, like Demi Moore’s hair. It felt like a comedic take on some old fashion where the designer is really self-obsessed.

SCARABELLI: There’s a little bit of Donatella in there, perhaps.

DARA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SCARABELLI: And just to bring it back to the lookbook as well, Demna has always been obsessed with character studies, and I think this is really taking that up a notch. My favorite look was, of course, La Bomba.

DARA: I also liked Bastardo. 

SCARABELLI: Great names. It’s all very “Boom Boom” or whatever that guy called the ’80s revival. It’s the mob wife aesthetic, which we love but feels a little sinister for our current era.

DARA: Yeah. There’s this tension between enjoying a certain style—which I feel like you and I can relate to—this kind of severe, powerful, glamorous type of clothing—knowing what it represents but subverting the concept. It’s almost hard to tell if it’s tongue-and-cheek or just on the nose, but when you see the way these characters are presented…

SCARABELLI: Right. There’s obviously a level of satire involved here, and I’m sure that comes across even more in the film. 

DARA: Totally—wow, I’m driving past a vintage car outside some fancy building with a Gucci license plate. I guess this is where the after party will be. 

SCARABELLI: I also think he did a very good job of hitting all the different eras of the house from Michele to Tom Ford all the way back to when the Gucci family was still in control. We have the historic Gucci flora-like print transformed into this very Demna-esque dress with a crazy high collar—

DARA: That dress looked really cool in real life. They’re almost facsimiles, copies of these things from the past that are recognizable, but reinterpreted. And my favorite place where you see that is with the Jackie bag. It’s a slouched version of a very iconic structured bag that’s had a resurgence recently. A previous version is still in stores but they’re like, “Okay, here’s a new one.”

SCARABELLI: Right, it’s the Demna-fied version that has a bit of a raw touch to it. 

DARA: Yeah. And there’s something similar where you’re seeing the sexiness of the Tom Ford era on people that are not sexy in the same way. The attitude is a little bit sideways, even though the outfit is basically the same as it was in the early 2000s.

SCARABELLI: That’s a very good point. It’s like there’s a sense of discomfort in the models that makes the clothes become almost costume-like.

DARA: Yeah, there’s an awkwardness. They’re not so “Va-va-voom.” 

SCARABELLI: Like with the Lila Moss look. Regazza. 

DARA: I love her look—the girl. She just looks so spoiled and bratty and amazing.

SCARABELLI: I’m going to go for Le Snob. It’s the crazy floor-length velvet gown with this spectacular petal-like collar. Which one are you?

DARA: Oh. Sorry. Someone scootered by when I opened the car door.

SCARABELLI: Very Milano. Be careful!

DARA: Okay, let’s see. I like the VIC because we’re always at the shows gagging for them. It’s like, fuck the celebrities. It’s all about the clients who come decked out.

SCARABELLI: Absolutely. Well, here’s to your Future VIC status. I’ll talk to you soon. 

DARA: I’ll send you guys pictures.

SCARABELLI: Thank you. Ciao.