Gucci Celebrates 100 Years Of The Iconic Household Name

Gucci Celebrates 100 Years Of The Iconic Household Name

By: Amy Rosner By: Amy Rosner | October 4, 2021 | Style & Beauty

100 years of the Double G that continues to define modern luxury.

To celebrate the legacy of the brand, Gucci announces the arrival of a brand new series of Gucci pop-ups.

These ephemeral stores provide a captivating shopping experience, dedicated to Gucci 100: the collection that pays tribute to the centennial of the Maison.

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Gucci 100 manifests a deep connection between two universal languages, the language of clothing as an expression of personal identity and the language of music that recalls a collective memory.

Showcasing the products in an immersive, dedicated environment which reflects Creative Director Alessandro Michele’s unconventional approach to luxury fashion, the initiative is aimed at connecting and engaging with clients over the world and their surrounding communities.

The stores will be launched in a variety of locations nationwide, including New York’s Meatpacking District, a new neighborhood for the House, Miami Design District’s Paradise Plaza, and South Coast Plaza’s Jewel Court.

Gucci’s Meatpacking District location includes a full takeover of a historic neighborhood building featuring the pop-up on the ground floor and an additional two floors. You can only access this 18,000 square foot space with an appointment, because well, it’s Gucci. They can be elite like that.

Additionally, Gucci’s Pop-Up at Miami Design District’s Paradise Plaza space features 5500 square feet of indoor and outdoor space that have been completely transformed.

Other in-store pop-up locations will appear in existing stores in Houston, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Toronto.

The Gucci 100 Pop-Ups showcase the collection in a multi-dimensional atmosphere defined by the juxtaposition of classic architectural details and visionary features like perimetral arches, LED, and white reflective floors.

Mirroring the collection itself, the pop-ups celebrate the connection between past and present, made tangible through music. By spinning a wheel placed on the side of a cabinet, visitors are invited to discover the playlist of the handpicked songs from different decades – all namechecking Gucci.

“The centennial, for me, represents an opportunity to bear witness to Gucci’s eternal vitality that year after year, is reborn, it renews itself, reestablishing an unusual relationship with contemporaneity as a boy, forever young, observing the world with a powerful vision,” Alessandro Michele.

“I recognized the manifestation of its youth in its having intercepted and traversed, for one hundred years now, popular culture in all its forms. Above all, in music: the only medium, aside from fashion, more reactive to the times that mutate and mark the new, the today, the now.”

It all begins with reflections on a number: 22,705. This is the extensive number of songs in which the word ‘Gucci’ appears among the lyrics from 1921 to date according to Music Data Company, Musixmatch.

Ready-to-wear and accessories feature the Gucci 100 logo or are adorned with verses from three songs chosen by Alessandro Michele from among the countless tracks that mention the brand.

The campaign features Jazz, Psychedelic, Japanese Punk, Disco, Hip Hop, Afrobeat; these genres serve as the musical backdrops to a century-long journey in which a cast of characters moves through an evolution of sounds, harmonies, movements, tastes, and styles.

Shot by Joshua Woods under the creative direction of Alessandro Michele, the campaign channels love for life itself, the pleasure of conviviality, the beauty of dance, the overwhelming energy of music, and the thrill of performance.

Campaign Credits:

Creative Director: Alessandro Michele

Art Director: Christopher Simmonds

Photographer & Director: Joshua Woods

Makeup: Diane Kendal

Hair: Paul Hanlon

“It isn’t a revisionist attempt to rummage through the past: if anything, mine is a ‘reverse’ revisionism of the House’s history, stitched back together by a piercing note, a melody, a refrain. Also because, if I were to depict Gucci, for me it would be an eternal teenager who hangs out at places where music is heard and played”, says Michele.

Gucci Popping Up in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District

The luxury fashion brand Gucci is 100 years old this year and it’s marking the milestone in style.

Gucci is opening pop-up stores across the United States, with one at 446 West 14th Street in New York’s very own Meatpacking District. The pop-up encompasses the entire 26,600-square-foot building, according to a source familiar with the deal.

The store joins pop-ups throughout Houston, Beverly Hills, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco.

The Thor Equities-owned building Gucci chose between Washington Street and 10th Avenue was built in 1936, according to PropertyShark. The ground floor of the pop-up — which opened this past Saturday — is accessible to the public while the upper floors and rooftop will be open by appointment only. It is Gucci after all!

The Meatpacking District building has a history with luxury pop-ups. Chanel hosted one at the building in September 2015 to launch a new watch line, Observer reported. And Porsche hosted another that same year, when asking rents were as high as $450 per square foot for the space, Commercial Observer reported.

The Gucci pop-up will only be around for a few months, until December, the source said. It’s unclear if the store will have the same musical theme Gucci has adopted for its other pop-ups, focusing on singers and songwriters who’ve mentioned the fashion brand in their songs. Items designed for the anniversary include lyrics from songs mentioning the brand throughout the 1980s to early 2000s, CR Fashion Book reported.

Thor bought the three-story building in March 2007 for $23.4 million, as CO has reported. Thor declined to comment on the deal. It was not immediately clear who represented Thor or Gucci in the transaction, and the fashion company did not respond to requests for comment.

Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.

I’ll Have a Side of Gucci With My Common Prosperity, Please

Given the new mood, those houses with more discreet designs, such as Prada SpA, and Kering SA’s Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta look well placed. Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, is already adjusting his trademark maximalism to appeal beyond the brand’s millennial fanbase. Recent collections have been more understated. But further work may be needed to align with the new zeitgeist: The Gucci name and logo are still very much in evidence. Getting the tone right matters to parent Kering. In 2019, Gucci accounted for about 60% of sales and about 80% of operating profit.