Gucci show during Men Fall 2012 Fashion Week in Milan

 Leonardo DiCaprio as Arthur Rimbaud in love/hate with Paul Verlaine as interpreted by Leonardo DiCaprio in Agnieszka Holland’s 1995 film “Total Eclipse.” That’s what the designer Frida Giannini was thinking about when she began putting together her latest collection, she said backstage at Gucci on Monday.

"I wanted something decadent, just like a 19th century poet," said Gucci creative director Frida Giannini backstage after this path-breaking take on men's fashion.

The collections in Milan have also been all about a renewed obsession with fur, ideal considering that temperatures in the Italian fashion capital have fallen below zero every night of the season. The standout Gucci look was an ideally dramatic car coat - beaver on the outside, astrakhan in the interior.
Gucci show during Men Fall 2012 Fashion Week in Milan

The designer's choice of a finale was also telling - dandy tuxedos made in darkest velvet or dramatic pony skin, the latter laser cut into jacquard paisley patterns. Gucci will always be a major accessories destination, and Giannini got them right, and just the right side revolutionary, with travel bags in an antique map patterns, or enlarged doctor's briefcases in vernis crocodile.