Big shifts in fashion and in the landscape of fashion brands don’t happen every season. When it comes to the latter, I can think of a few in the last decade: Phoebe Philo starting at Celine, John Galliano leaving Dior, Nicolas Chesquiere moving to Louis Vuitton and Hedi Slimane to YSL. Last spring, there was another moment that looks to have a lasting influence – Alessandro Michele showed his first collection for Gucci, after the departure of Frida Giannini.

I have a feeling that the fashion establishment never liked Giannini much, but she did her job well – year after year, her pretty straightforward, glamorous and sexy aesthetic sold well and launched a thousand handbags. It all worked perfectly nicely, until it didn’t, and sales started falling in 2014. I often found things in Giannini’s collections that I liked (I adored this green floral dress, which I incidentally think foreshadows Michele’s style, and thought the entire a/w 2014 was nice), but there hadn’t been any real excitement around the shows for years. For a brand like Gucci, this isn’t a sustainable situation.

Promptly, Giannini was replaced with Michele, the slightly hippy behind-the-scenes guy and long-time Gucci employee. And with one show, he won over all the cool girls, who adored his eclectic, vintage-y, nerdy style. Initially, I had thought to title this post “Gucci is the new Prada”, as there is a distinctly Prada-ish feel to many Michele’s clothes. But it would not have been entirely true: Michele’s work is more romantic and not as relentlessly intellectual as Miuccia’s. His girls are smart, too, but more sincere and enthusiastic.

Michele’s first collection was occasionally almost ridiculously pretty, with floaty dresses and lovely blouses, but anchored by the quirk – furry shoes (THE item of the season), strange colour combinations, synthetic-looking materials. He has continued very much in the same vein. The latest collection that he showed in Milan yesterday bringing together most of the things that are cool now: a vaguely seventies’ feel, nerd chic, the sense of romance, a modern maximalism – pretty much the same as the previous collections, just more of it.

It’ll be interesting to see how it sells in the long term, as the admiration of it-girls alone cannot feed a brand. The overall feel is a lot less sleek than it used to be and that will be quite a departure. That said, much of the change Michele has brought is about attitude and presentation. Lose the glasses and the berets and the adventurous styling, and there are individual pieces that would also appeal to people who actually have 1500 euros to spend on a blouse. If nothing else, the T-bar platforms alone should keep the brand going until the next season.