It’s mid-afternoon on the 4 Seasons in Milan. Outdoors, vogue week is in full swing, with celeb-spotters and paparazzi crowding the slender sidewalks. Deep within the bowels of the palatial resort, in a cavernous suite guarded by two massive Italian males, the vibe is a little more peaceable, the way in which A$AP Rocky likes it. The rapper and elegance icon is reclining in a lounge chair. He’s simply arrived within the metropolis for the Gucci runway present, which coincides with the launch of his new marketing campaign for Gucci Responsible, the Italian home’s flagship perfume, alongside Elliott Web page and Julia Garner. Tea and sliced fruit have been delivered, and a set of the perfumes are positioned on a desk subsequent to Rocky.
Sporting a tan Gucci blazer and what he calls a “one-of-none” customized AWGE x Gucci trucker hat, Rocky is enjoying the a part of old-school cologne pitchman. However Rocky is, in fact, one of the vital of-the-moment guys alive proper now. Because the world noticed on the Tremendous Bowl, Rocky and his companion Rihanna expect one other youngster this 12 months—a 12 months the place Rocky is rumored to be releasing his long-awaited fourth album. (Child primary starred with mother and pop on the March cowl of British Vogue—an intro becoming the prince of music and vogue.)
Even within the run of such momentous—and relentlessly mentioned—life occasions, Rocky stays extraordinarily geeked about promoting fragrances. For one, Rocky has a popularity for at all times smelling wonderful—and is, actually, one thing of a scent obsessive himself. (The primary time I interviewed him, on the Barclays Middle a number of years in the past, I took a whiff to see if the hype was actual. Regardless of our chat following a number of hours of Rocky moshing and sweating on stage, he smelled like he had simply stepped out of a spa.) He’s additionally a longtime Gucci man, a fan and good friend of the home who research every assortment with the attention of a seasoned vogue critic.
“I really like what [former creative director] Alessandro [Michele] did,” he says. “I really like what they’re doing now.” He’s “actually, actually, actually” excited, he says, to see the course newly-minted Gucci inventive director Sabato de Sarno takes issues come September.
There’s a debate within the room about simply what number of Gucci exhibits Rocky has attended over time. A member of the Gucci staff pegs it at 4. “That is unattainable! That is unattainable,” says Rocky. “All proper, so let me do the mathematics. I did the Gucci Cruise present. That was in 2016…” Rocky thinks this week’s present (ladies’s Fall-Winter 2023) might be his eight Gucci entrance row, an exceptionally constant relationship between a celeb and a luxurious model when all people else appears to be pace relationship. (Gucci later confirmed it was certainly quantity eight.)
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