GOING SOLO: Gucci is following in the footsteps of some fellow luxury players announcing it will uncouple its men’s and women’s shows.

The luxury house is expected to return to showing menswear designed by creative director Alessandro Michele on the runway as part of Milan Fashion Week, running Jan. 13 to 17.

Gucci president and CEO announced the move Tuesday during the Milano Global Fashion Summit.

“We have stuck to two displays per year but together with Alessandro [Michele] we decided to put a stronger emphasis on menswear, after holding coed shows for several season,” Bizzarri noted.

Incidentally Michele’s breakout show in January 2015 was a men’s parade during which he introduced the Gucci Princetown slippers and bow-tie shirts that would lay the ground for his fashion lexicon and gain him the top creative job at the Kering-owned house.

Although Milan Men’s Fashion Week is more than two months away, Gucci’s return to the calendar is sure to generate buzz and expand the appeal of men’s fashion weeks in Milan, which have recently been gaining traction after a few years of slimmer editions.

To be sure, dedicated menswear shows are making a comeback, with brands from Versace and Dsquared2 to Givenchy opting for men’s-only showcases.

The Florentine house has experimented with different formats over the past few years. In 2017, it opted for the coed format with Michele asserting that the move reflected “the way I see the world today.”

In 2019, Bizzarri announced Gucci would revert back to separate showcases, but those plans changed in 2020 when COVID-19 hit. Michele decided to hold two coed shows per year as a result of a pandemic-induced pledge to slow down, and renamed seasons, swapping resort and pre-fall for terms borrowed from classical music.

In recent seasons, the brand has not entirely sit out the men’s showcases, opting to present special projects within the context of Milan Men’s Fashion Week.

In June, Michele unveiled the Gucci Ha Ha Ha collection, stemming from his friendship with British singer and actor Harry Styles, while in 2021 it used the fashion week platform to tease Gucci’s centennial collection with which it celebrated its ties with the music world.