“You are made from stardust … you are cosmos”

The Gucci Cosmos Exhibition is displayed at 180 Studios, The Strand until the 31st of December, having opened its doors on 11th October. Celebrating 102 years since Guccio Gucci opened the first Gucci store in Via della Vigna Nuova in Florence the exhibition looks back through the history of one of the most famous fashion brands in the world. Throughout the exhibition, you divulge into previous campaigns, original designs by taking a deep look into the historical archive. Some key themes stick out to the viewer as you navigate through the immersive artistic experience, but primarily the exhibition starts off exploring the initial importance of Gucci luggage and flows naturally into a discussion of the timelessness of the fashion pieces and what cultural significance they hold. 

Starting the experience off in a simulated 1880s/1890s electrical lift, the exhibition focuses on the backstory of the Gucci protagonist and founder Guccio Gucci who was an 18-year-old intern at the Savoy Hotel in London during the late 1800s. With the creation of the first electric lift in 1890, Gucci was able to learn about the inhabitants of the luxury hotel during the 30–40-minute journey down into the lobby. Not only was Gucci entranced by the activities and the extravagant lifestyle of the visitors but also the beauty of the luggage which accompanied them, and arguably this is what drew the young boy into the world of luxury accessories. 

Isn’t Gucci a Womenswear fashion brand, I hear you ask! - Well initially, Guccio Gucci focussed solely on luggage and luxury bags, with the first womenswear fashion show not displayed until 1981. 

The initial rooms of the exhibition feel like a dystopian airport with its chemically white walls and slowly circling conveyor belt littered with Gucci luggage from past and present campaigns. The display includes a 1970s Canvas Tennis bag, a 1960s Hemp Vanity case and contrastingly a 2020 suitcase crafted by the last Gucci creative director, Alessandro Michele (Figure 1) and it was interesting to see how the bags from the 21st century differed or replicated their predecessors of the 20th century. In this room, I was able to learn fun historical facts about the history of Gucci luggage materials. During the initial stages of Gucci, which coincided with the First and Second World war, the availability of luxury materials such as leather or snakeskin were incredibly scarce, following the decision of the League of Nations to ban trading with Italy, and the first ‘house code’ or signature design for Gucci was a reaction to this draught of luxury resources. In 1935, the ever-resourceful Gucci utilised woven hemp as it was not only incredibly durable but was also created in the southern Italian city of Naples. This hemp was employed for the initial lines of Gucci suitcases and is still in circulation today.

Gucci’s dedication to accessories is depicted well in this exhibition as you see a plethora of examples of ‘the Gucci bag’ throughout. It is written on the exhibition walls that, ‘A Gucci bag identifies more as a subject than an object,’ and is instead a metonymy or metaphor for an icon. For example, both the Jackie and the Diana bags are peppered through the House’s history and live on much later than the iconic women they were named after. 

1961 saw the unveiling of Gucci stores in London and Miami with a store having opened in New York eight years prior and not soon after Gucci opened stores in Tokyo (1972) and Hong Kong (1974). In this way the late nineties saw a boom in Gucci accessory sales and kickstarted the House’s successful journey.

The next room of the exhibition is titled, The Timeline. This corridor of history, with photos and displays of previous campaigns and their stories decorating the walls, almost replicates the inside of a wooden suitcase. In this part of the exhibition, you can see which celebrities have been ambassadors of the house and which campaigns were the most successful. One element of Gucci which is still a key player today is the Gucci Flora print campaign. The Showroom focuses primarily on this with large crystalised flowers overhanging mannequins decorated by Gucci floral pieces, including a silk chiffon dress (2008) and the Jackie Bag in canvas with floral print (Cruise, 2015.) (Figure 2). This Gucci print was created in 1966 by Vittorio Accornero and the celebrated motif is still popular today.

A few abstract themes come into play across the entirety of the exhibition, but the main two being Zoetrope and Cosmos. Zoetrope comes from the Greek words Zoe and tropos and translates to mean ‘wheel of life.’ Zoetrope refers to the first device that presented the illusion of movement by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878. Muybridge used twelve sequential photos of a galloping horse as a way to trick the mind into thinking it was seeing one long film. Gucci always admired the beauty of horses and as a boy working at the Savoy Hotel found equestrianism to be a fascinating luxury pastime. This is unsurprising if we look at the number of shoes, bags and coats from Gucci which sustain elements of equestrianism. This includes the Horsebit Loafer which, although introduced 70 years ago, is just as iconic now as it was then.