Gucci Museo

For the 90th anniversary of the label, Gucci opens a museum to share its rich archive.

Now 90 years old, Gucci has opened a museum dedicated to its history in the Palazzo della Mercanzia in Piazza della Signoria in Florence, separated from Palazzo Vecchio only by Via dei Gondi. The name of the building (the original was completed in 1362, and the top storey in 1540) stems from the times when it was the Guildhall. In its more recent life, it housed a bank before being converted to the Gucci headquarters with its archives in what had been the bank's vault when Frida Giannini was made Gucci's creative director. After being established by Tom Ford (the troubled Gucci history squandered more than it conserved), who masterminded Gucci's relaunch, Frida made the archives the drive behind her creative idea. Then, when Giannini decided to move the creative office to Rome, her home city, and leave the archives in Florence where the accessories have always been manufactured, she started thinking about perhaps breathing new life into the Palazzo and turning it into a place that would codify the brand's legend, a place that would tell its story and bring depth and significance to the present. In fact, Heritage and Forever Now are the most recurrent expressions in the advertising campaigns.

All this inspired the Gucci Museo design as a place that would share with the public the wonders of its archives, a strong reference behind the design of the articles on sale in the Gucci boutique a stone's throw away in Via Tornabuoni and in the hundreds of shops scattered the world over. Like all fashion archives, those of Gucci do not only bow to the rule of preserving order but also and especially to the strategy of breaking up the past and creatively recomposing it. It is the place of reference of the creative director, a figure that has only recently stepped into the limelight in the fashion world.

Top and above: the section of the museum devoted to the Flora line (not just the scarves, but especially the 1966 designs by Vittorio Accornero that Frida has skillfully revived in recent years). Photo courtesy of Richard Bryant & GUCCI.

The creative director is the very essence of a brand that must necessarily evolve without losing its memory while, at the same time, managing to identify all the spaces where it can continue expressing who it is. In a game of overlapping identities, the creative director stands midway between the water-diviner and the geneticist—pursuing visions of the future and manipulating the brand's very own genetic code. The creative director could be seen as a curator or a film director, one who manages to gel all the expertises and excellences required to create a film.

Entrance to the Gucci Museum. Photo courtesy of Richard Bryant & GUCCI.

So, when defining the Gucci Museo, Giannini also called on several professionals (architects, graphic designers, fashion curators) to determine spaces and contents although, in the end, the museum is its own architect. People today no longer think in terms of a permanent museum, not the fashion museums that rotate the material in storage or even the large institutions (e.g. Tate Modern), which see chronological criteria as outdated and display their collections in rotation, adopting ordering themes each time—nor would you adopt the display criteria of a shop or a sales catalogue.

The solution was to design a fluid structure that revolved around its visitors—a continuous metal frame that passes from one room to another, a sort of aquarium with larger-than-life glass-cases that serve as a number of Gucci cabinets of curiosities.

The Logomania installation. Photo courtesy of Richard Bryant & GUCCI.

The concept behind the spatial organisation (the exhibition area occupies part of the ground floor and the first and second floors; the offices are on the third floor) was to select themes that are linked to the history of the Gucci brand and its initial appreciation, leaving one room free as a Contemporary Art Space to be managed in collaboration with the Pinault Foundation. Part of the building's ground floor had to be open to the city so it has a coffee shop and a bookshop specialising in fashion, art and photography, with a gift shop full of affordable Gucci Museo memorabilia; beside this, the more intimate Icon Store contains the Icon Collection, a number of pieces such as the New Bamboo produced in a single edition for the museum only.

One of the museum's public spaces on the ground floor of the building. Photo courtesy of Richard Bryant & GUCCI.

The first difficulty with regard to exhibition spaces was how to lend fluidity to a number of rooms on the ground, first and second floors that had been greatly tampered with over the years, had no great saving graces and, in some instances, seemed rather cramped. A structure had to be designed that could redefine the space while keeping the Palazzo in the background and that could, also, easily change its appearance. The solution was to design a fluid structure that revolved around its visitors—a continuous metal frame that passes from one room to another, a sort of aquarium with larger-than-life glass-cases that serve as a number of Gucci cabinets of curiosities.

The section dedicated to travel. Photo courtesy of Richard Bryant & GUCCI.

The ground floor showcases a travel theme with the trunks, suitcases and accessories (and even a Cadillac) that first rooted Gucci in the collective imagination and that constitute the starting point of a reconstruction of the brand's history (initially, Gucci was "suitcases and travel accessories"). The first floor has sections on the Flora design (not just scarves but also the design created by Vittorio Accornero in 1966, which Frida has skilfully re-launched in recent years); on the eternally popular handbags; on the red-carpet creations; and on the precious objects. There is also a small room showing videos and films. The permanent exhibition continues on the second floor with space given over to Logomania and the evolution of the double G monogram, and then the visitor route ends with Lifestyle and Sport, paying tribute to the symbols and products inspired by the worlds of sport and leisure time, where Gucci is a master of quality and inventive hyperbole.

The bookstore specializes in books on fashion, art and photography. Photo courtesy of Richard Bryant & GUCCI.

The Gucci Museo is Italy's first museum of this size and such media impact to interpret, bring back into circulation and—why not—also question the brand's iconic features and materials. It is of interest for the challenge it embarks on—perhaps unintentionally and somewhat naively due possibly to its being too close to it—to transform these spaces (and the objects in them) into a place for cultural reflection on the history of the brand and on Italian manufacturing.
Maria Luisa Frisa