GUESS U.S.A. FW25: the rebirth of american maximalism

GUESS U.S.A. embraces maximalism in its Fall/Winter 2025 collection, a proposal that champions excess, texture, and sensuality as a response to prevailing minimalism. Under the creative direction of Nicolai Marciano and the aesthetic vision of Eli Russell Linnetz, the brand explores a territory of contrasts where American heritage merges with contemporary theatricality. The result is a collection that overflows with visual energy and redefines the codes of Los Angeles rock ‘n’ roll style through a lens of nostalgic luxury.

Far from restraint and clean lines, GUESS U.S.A. goes for saturation: faux fur coats in deep hues, gold-dyed boleros, bomber jackets with animal prints, and silhouettes inspired by the bohemian aesthetic of the seventies. Proportions are deliberately exaggerated, shoulders are expanded, and handcrafted patchwork emerges as a symbol of rebellion and reinvention. Each garment seems designed to challenge the canon of sobriety, offering a visual reading laden with history, desire, and ambiguity.

Sensuality remains the guiding thread. The pieces reveal the body with provocative honesty: minimal denim briefs, fitted vests, tiny skirts, and tops that evoke the free spirit of the nineties. The collection proposes a new kind of eroticism, more uninhibited and more conscious, where the appeal lies not in perfection but in the friction between the raw and the sophisticated.

The brand’s textile work once again takes center stage. The cracked leather that has defined its aesthetic evolves into wrinkled and rustic finishes applied to micro skirts, trucker jackets, and trench coats. Denim, a structural pillar of GUESS’s identity, is presented in versions treated with experimental techniques: matching sets with a vintage feel, oversized jeans with tie-dye effects inspired by oil spills, and fitted cuts with burnt and frayed patchwork.

Even knitwear pieces adopt an artisanal approach, with aged fabrics and irregular surfaces that reinforce the idea of deliberate imperfection. Accessories complete the narrative: the Claudia bag reappears reinterpreted in aged sheepskin, while high-heeled boots in the same material solidify an aesthetic that oscillates between the wild and the sublime.

The visual campaign, starring Brazilian model Juliana Nalu alongside new faces, unfolds amidst bars, highways, and forgotten motels. The images, with an almost documentary feel, capture the essence of a vanished America: the noise of neon lights, the dust, the endless night. The project functions as a time capsule that blends the rawness of the present with the melancholy of the past.