Those paying close attention to Gucci’s well-received fall ready-to-wear collection may have noticed a few painterly additions to the brand’s aesthetic. The new, amped-up Gucci that everyone’s raving about is the work of recently-installed creative director Alessandro Michele, but for this collection, he found a helper in a Brooklyn-based painter dubbed GucciGhost (aka Trevor Andrew).

Andrew’s oeuvre, which includes street art, paintings, and decorative objects, is heavily rooted in his longtime obsession with Gucci, which began during childhood thrifting trips with his mother. While his work isn’t overtly negative or mocking, it presents the imagery associated with the luxury lifestyle landmark (such as the signature double “G” motif) with a decidedly deconstructed, downtown sensibility.

“I saw the way Trevor was using the symbol of the company and I thought it was quite genius,” Michele told Women’s Wear Daily. “It’s completely different than the idea of copying. It’s the idea that you try to [take to] the street, through language like graffiti, the symbols of the company.”

Alessandro Michele and Trevor Andrew (GucciGhost) in Andrew’s temporary studio at the Gucci headquarters in Milan.
Photo: Kevin Tachman for Gucci.

Michele became aware of Andrew’s work only recently, but immediately approached him to collaborate on the brand’s latest collection, which debuted on the runways of Milan this February. Surprisingly, the brand’s higher-ups were into the idea from the get-go, with CEO Marco Bizzarri stating that he was “quite in love” with the collaboration.

For Andrew, Gucci has long represented a certain kind of highly aspirational, wildly unattainable lifestyle.

“You can look at something beautiful all you want through the window. When you actually put it on, that’s what takes you into the superhero [mode], you know what I mean?,” he said of the moment he acquired his first Gucci watch.

A look from Gucci’s new collection created in collaboration by Trevor Andrew, also known as GucciGhost.
Photo: Getty/Pietro D’aprano.

The collaboration itself is a marriage of street culture, pop culture, and high culture, with ample paint drips and graffiti lettering amidst expert tailoring, bold color blocking, and a healthy dose of ’70s inspiration—plus a kind of unexpected, geek-chic twist to make it all feel refreshing.

Andrew wasn’t the only artist involved in the presentation, either: as Vogue noted, photographer Petra Collins walked the runway, clad in a shiny brocade suit worthy of Ziggy Stardust himself. As if we needed one more reason to love Gucci.