Demna turned the inside of Milan's sprawling convention center into a Gucci store, right down to the low-slung velvet seats, and at least one guest thought it was a real new flagship. It was a set, built to show his idea for the brand's future shops. I find that a fitting stage, because this collection is a lot about what Gucci sells and to whom.

He has spent a year trying out answers. There was La Famiglia, the lookbook and short film with Demi Moore, which he thinks of as "the Gucci before fashion." There was the nineties Gucci he grew up on, the very sexy February show, and GucciCore in Times Square in May.

"It took me a year to get to this collection and to really understand what Gucci is for me because Gucci is so many things," he said backstage. Earlier he had said he needed a silhouette. What he showed instead was a whole cast.

There is the horsey equestrian in a riding jacket and boots, the bourgeois Milanese in a crisp trench, and the glamour queen in a slinky evening dress that winks at Tom Ford's nineties jersey. The tailoring has peaked shoulders and is nipped and snug, where his younger self would have gone oversized. More than a quarter of the looks are all black, which keeps the cast looking like one family.

My favorite part is the preppy kids gone bad. Bomber jackets, popped-collar rugbies, tartan kilts with giant horsebits, hip-slung jeans hanging from multi-buckle belts, necks stacked with chains. There is something a bit vicious about them that recalls his Balenciaga years, and I think that is where he is most himself.

Bombers show up on almost a fifth of the looks, sunglasses on about a fifth, and fur on a handful. The menswear is just as strong, all late eighties cropped pants and loafers with no socks. He admitted he was petrified of that guy, and then made him look very good.

The number that tells you most is the bags. More than four in five looks carry one, which makes sense for a house whose business is built on them. Demna said the look he was proudest of was the final evening dress, draped over one shoulder and held in place by a teardrop-shaped metal weight, and it is a real feat.

For a normal wardrobe, though, I would take the bomber and the snug jacket, add a horsebit somewhere, and skip the kilt unless you are very sure of yourself. It is the most convincing Gucci he has shown yet.