_Gucci celebrates its 100th anniversary

  • One hundred years ago, this year, leather Craftsman and Entrepreneur Guccio Gucci founded the eponymous Maison in his hometown, Florence. He certainly never could imagine how great the destiny of this latter could be.

    Property of the global luxury group Kering, owned by French billionaire Entrepreneur François-Henri Pinault since 2004, Gucci has become one of the world’s leading luxury fashion brands. The Italian duo in charge since 2015 is at the heart of a truly modern fairy tale. Creative Director Alessandro Michele and President and Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri are writing the future of the Florentine Maison with genius and efficacity. They have literally propelled Gucci into the third millennium by looking at the coming decades with a new eye and a new heart and by celebrating Creativity, Innovation and Italian craftsmanship. But also Sustainability and Humanity. Gucci is no more a luxury brand only. It is much more. A real way of life shared by a growing worldwide community.
  • Happy Anniversary Gucci! The famous Florentine Maison celebrates its first century this year. This is an historic date. The perfect one chosen by American Director Ridley Scott to release his movie The House of Gucci with popstar Lady Gaga and actor Adam Shriver on last November. 
    The opportunity for him to tell his truth about the murder of Maurizio Gucci, grandson of the founder Guccio Gucci on 27th March 1995. 
    Fortunately, the past is behind. And this drama which was able to cause some damages to its image in the Nineties, could not be a threat for the future anymore. Gucci is on the right track. The Italian brand, owned by The Kering Group since 2004, is working on a new exciting and innovative way of offering a new experience of Fashion and Luxury to its customers. Especially the younger ones. 
  • One hundred years Gucci

    One hundred years Gucci

  • Creative Director, Alessandro Michele, on board since 2015, is the revolutionary mind, architect of this new successful concept. He surely knows how to speak with the Millennials and he is totally aware of the priorities of those hard-to-please generations Y and Z: People and Planet, that’s it. 
    As lots of brands which operate in the Fashion Industry, Gucci needed quickly a greener and more human approach to face the incoming decades.  Gucci Equilibrium was indeed launched as the Maison’s concrete commitment to generate positive change for people and the planet as soon as possible. «Our inaugural Gucci Equilibrium Impact Report illustrates our actions and commitments to be inclusive, sustainable, responsible and accountable in everything we do. We have surpassed our target to reduce our total footprint four years early, an achievement that underlines our commitment to transformative change. It is our mission to be part of the solution for a better tomorrow and we will continue to build authentic value across our business and in the wider world – value for people, value for climate and value for nature. » explained Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s President and CEO. The 2020 EP&L analysis have showed a -44% reduction of Gucci’s total environmental footprint and a -47% decrease in its greenhouse gas emissions in its direct operations and across the supply chain since 2015.
  • Alessandro Michele & Marco Bizzarri

    Alessandro Michele & Marco Bizzarri

  • In 2021, the small Florentine family-owned leather shop founded in 1921 turned into a leading luxury fashion brand, is more than ever powered by Creativity. After the creative and unforgettable reigns of talented Tom Ford (1994-2004) and Frida Giannini (2006-2015), Alessandro Michele, Artistic Director since 2015, has started his own artistic and creative revolution. A little Renaissance is in progress: He has broken the rules and the codes for the best and has really reinvented the image of the Maison around the world. The Gucci’s Wonderland he has created, rocks. People love it. It’s unexpected. New and fresh. As, extravagant ARIA collection F/W 2021-22 revealed on last 15th April and its short movie which celebrates Gucci’s heritage and displayed the pieces in an imaginary Savoy Club, clearly inspired by the Savoy London Hotel where founder Guccio Gucci worked as a lift boy in his youth. « I celebrated Gucci's equestrian world by transfiguring it into a fetish cosmogony; I sublimated the silhouette of Marilyn Monroe and the glamour of old Hollywood; I sabotaged the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie and the codes of masculine elegance. » confided Michele. On last July, the Maison showcased ‘Hortus Deliciarum’, its second High Jewellery collection (130 pieces). The location chosen for this event was a little paradise on earth: the Borromean islands located on the Lago Maggiore in Lombardy. American actress Odie Turner-Smith is the beautiful testimonial of the glamorous campaign led by Glen Luchford. 

  • In occasion of this prestigious anniversary and his six happy and prolific years on board, Michele had the brilliant idea of the Gucci Garden Archetypes: An exhibition from the third millennium located in Florence, an immersive and multi-sensory space that explores the campaigns of the House from the last six years and his creative manifesto. “I thought it was interesting to accompany people in these first six years of adventure, inviting them to cross the imaginary, the narrative, the unexpected, the glitter. So, I created a playground of emotions that are the same as in the campaigns, because they are the most explicit journey into my imagery,” says Michele.
    Unstoppable, he has recently launched Vault, a new avantgarde online concept-store. Because Gucci it’s fun too. Not only luxury. It is of course not the traditional commercial platform but at the contrary, a new experimental online space where you can experience a new one-of-a-kind shopping. Customers can choose between a selection of Vintage Gucci pieces customized by Michele himself available in limited edition. As well as pieces of new incoming talented fashion designers as Ahluwalia, Shanel Campbell, Stefan Cooke, Cormio, Charles de Vilmorin, JORDANLUCA, YUEQI QI, Rave Review, Gui Rosa, Bianca Saunders, Collina Strada, Boramy Viguier and Rui Zhou. Or new arty collabs as Comme des Garçons x Gucci. Vault will be soon the virtual place to be and to show. The perfect place between past and future. Reality and dream.

    By Helene Battaglia

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