On Saturday, March 16, we visited the Gucci Garden in Florence. The building is located in a historic building in downtown Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria. The Gucci Garden is an unconventional museum dedicated to the Gucci brand’s narrative journey, communicated through a walking path through various rooms that take visitors on a sort of visual journey. The Gucci Garden is different than most museums because it is concerned with contemporary history, or history in-the-making. The most historical aspect of the museum was a timeline that showed the years in which different creative directors worked for Gucci. The rest of this blog is a collection of photos and descriptions from each exhibit that will walk readers through the story that Gucci’s marketing team has literally gardened within this space.
This plaque was included in one of the first rooms of the Gucci Garden, clearly communicating to visitors that the exhibit is organized into a visual narrative. Gucci’s success has always relied on image-making. Rather than ignoring or downplaying the importance of advertisements, they have embraced visual marketing as an intrinsic value of the brand. Compared to the rest of the design houses we have visited in Italy, Gucci’s statement on image-making is the most blatant.This is a detail in one of Alessandro Michele’s re-vamped archival stylings. The black collar is the inverse of the original design’s white detailing, and the bedazzled brooch and emerald green ruffled bow contrast the more traditional flower print which is very similar the original dress. Alessandro’s editions scream luxury, while the traditional pattern represents the quiet luxury of older creative directors.
Most of the interior design of the Gucci Garden is very modern, but the film room’s entrance is a preserved biblioteca (library) entrance. This choice communicates “yes, this building is old and beautiful, but we have the power to decide which parts are worth preservation.”This is a still image from the short film being played on repeat in the Gucci Garden biblioteca. The video featured a man wandering the streets of Philadelphia – mostly alleys and sidewalks. None of the shots in this short film convey luxury of any sort. The man’s clothes are ill-fitting and ragged. He moves between the architectural features of Philadelphia’s streets (bike racks, walls, sewer grates) with a complete lack of attention to the people around him. His movements are twitchy and improvisational, which prompts confused and annoyed reactions from other people on the street.This image features two stylings – one by Alessandro Michele (left) and one by Tom Ford (right). The two creative directors’ personal styles are clearly contrasted through similar design elements (black tule, snakes, and cutouts) used in completely different ways.A description and date for the two snake dresses by Alessandro Michele and Tom Ford.This is the Gucci Garden’s bag room, which was entirely made of mirrors. The floor, walls, and ceiling all reflected the hundreds of bags displayed, multiplying them into thousands. When we walked into this room, it felt like being swallowed by an infinite loop of Gucci handbags. This created an immersive method of viewing their collection and communicated the value of timeless design.This is one of the outfits displayed in Gucci Garden’s celebrity room. This room was full of mannequins wearing Gucci pieces recently worn by celebrities. This dress was worn by Lupita Nyong’o at the 2023 LACMA Art + Film Gala in Los Angeles. The mirrors occasionally flash images of the celebrities wearing each garment, but most of the time, they reflect multiples of the viewer and the Gucci garments displayed. This room is included in the exhibition to promote the narrative that Gucci is intrinsically connected to the modern concept of celebrity.
