Cover Alexa Chung attends the Gucci Women's Fall Winter 2024 Fashion Show during Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 in Milan, Italy (Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Gucci)
Alexa Chung attends the Gucci Women's Fall Winter 2024 Fashion Show during Milan Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 in Milan, Italy (Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Gucci)
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We delve into the lore and history behind the eternal House of Gucci
The House of Gucci has undergone several creative transformations throughout the decades. However, one thing remains constant: Italian craftsmanship at its finest captivates fashion enthusiasts worldwide.
To understand the story of the House, one must go back to Italy in 1921 when a young Guccio Gucci opened his first boutique after returning home. While working as a luggage carrier in London’s glamorous Savoy Hotel, which was then a melting pot of society’s elite, he was inspired to bring superior, handcrafted leather products to his native Florence. Gucci’s first products included handbags and luggage, whose reputation grew due to their timeless appeal.
More from Tatler: A History of Refinement: The Gucci Horsebit 1953 Loafer
Above Details from the Gucci fall-winter 2024 fashion show (Photo: Gucci)
Above Details from the Gucci fall-winter 2024 fashion show (Photo: Gucci)
Details from the Gucci fall-winter 2024 fashion show (Photo: Gucci)
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The House continued to grow in significance into the 1930s. Traditional materials such as leather were challenging to obtain, so the Gucci brothers introduced wood and raffia into their products, marking a pivotal turn for the world of handbag manufacturing. In the late 1940s, Gucci launched the Bamboo 1947 bag. Icons of the era, including Ingrid Bergman and Elizabeth Taylor, were soon spotted carrying variations of the purse, recognised by its organic bamboo handle shaped by the heat of a flame
The Horsebit motif, first introduced on a handbag in 1955, was created by Gucci’s sons Aldo, Rodolfo and Vasco, as a tribute to their father’s fondness for equestrianism. Its appearance on the namesake Horsebit 1953 loafer also marked the brand’s expansion into footwear. Its subtly elegant appearance, inspired by a piece of equipment used to control and guide horses around an equestrian’s ring, has gone on to symbolise the House’s heritage and evolution.
Above The Gucci Jackie Bag in white leather (Photo: Gucci)
Above The new Gucci Marmont handbag by Sabato de Sarno (Photo: Gucci)
The Gucci Jackie Bag in white leather (Photo: Gucci)
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Gucci soon made its foray into the American market in the 1960s, when it also saw a rise in the popularity of the Jackie bag. Previously called the Fifties Constance, the Gucci family renamed the hobo-style bag after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Its current iteration debuted in 2021 under the creative eye of Alessandro Michele.
By the 1980s, leadership changes and a struggle to maintain exclusivity amidst growing competition threatened to destabilise the Gucci name. The brand continued to develop despite these changes , leading to the creation of the GG logo and the interlocking double G monogram, seen on the House’s staples, from the GG Marmont to the Dionysus.
When Tom Ford was appointed creative director of the brand in 1994, he introduced a radically different aesthetic that contrasted with the brand’s more modest and subdued beginnings. He concentrated on womenswear and brought sharp silhouettes and experimental cuts, with thigh-high slit dresses and velvet pantsuits.
See also: A Fashion Odyssey: James Reid’s style journey with Gucci
Above The Gucci Signoria slingback pump (Photo: Gucci)
The Gucci Signoria slingback pump (Photo: Gucci)
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His successor, Alessandro Michele, emphasised quirky maximalism, which was defined by loud patterns and the use of the GG monogram. His introduction of the Marmont bag is a hallmark of his era, and floral imagery inspired by a scarf created for Grace Kelly. Today’s House of Gucci, under Sabato de Sarno’s leadership, brings quiet luxury back into the brand’s vocabulary, a full-circle approach to its early beginnings.
The Gucci effect continues to spread far and wide. A testament to the House’s legacy, it opens its fourth store in the Philippines at the Cebu NuStar Hotel.
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About
Julianna has been interested in leading a literary life since she first read Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess at eight. Before working with Tatler, she was an archive intern at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York. She is a textbook Pisces who devotes most of her spare time to her crochet projects, watching classic films, and going through her never-ending pile of unread books. She studied creative writing, global literature and art history at Sarah Lawrence College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2022. Toni Morrison, Nora Ephron, Clarice Lispector and Jia Tolentino are among her all-time favourite writers.
Work
Julianna writes about fashion, beauty, sustainability, and the arts. She is always keen on conducting interviews with talented women who are changing the game in their respective fields.
For event invites and story leads, hit her up at julianna.cabili@tatlerasia.com
