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Before models had even hit the runway for today’s Gucci fall 2022 presentation in Milan, a cell phone video had begun circulating the socialsphere featuring Rihanna and A$AP Rocky making their Fashion Week debut as parents-to-be, double-cheek kissing Edward Enninful and Anna Wintour in the front row. With the world’s most fashionable couple (see: Rih in a black latex crop top framing her belly, Rocky clutching a Gucci monogrammed suitcase) in attendance, this was a sure sign that things were about to really get going.

Yet guests were gathered at the proverbial house of Gucci to celebrate a different coupling: the collaboration of the Italian luxury brand with the German sportswear giant Adidas, continuing in the tradition of the house’s 2021 hacking of Balenciaga. Looks like Gucci’s looking to turn stripes into checks…of the Euro, dollar, and yen variety. (Please clap!)

A model walks the runway at the Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2022/23 on February 25, 2022 in Milan, Italy. Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Gucci

In the new collection, Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele went back to the “hack lab” to concoct a potent mix of last season’s polished ’70s-Hollywood sleaze with Adidas’s freaky-deaky sportswear legacy. The result? Lots of sporty textiles and latex, crispy Crayola suiting fronted with trefoil logos, and Adidas’s signature three stripes racing down capes, prairie dresses, and trenches. There was even a health goth riff—remember health goth?—on the customary bridal gown finale.

Both Gucci and Adidas are plugged into fashion’s blockbuster collaboration hyperculture, which was born of streetwear and sportswear traditions. And if last year’s Gucciaga was a mutual hacking, this year’s Guccididas felt more like a friendly scrimmage—nerds versus jocks, if you will. Interestingly enough, Adidas also recently revived its partnership with Prada, another Italian luxury brand—all but ensuring that capital-F fashion and sportswear collabs are here to stay. (If you’re interested in the business side of things, both Gucci and Balenciaga fall under the Kering luxury conglomerate umbrella, whereas Prada is owned by the Prada Group.) So long as that means more little heeled Samba dress shoes, sounds like a win.