Gucci Places

 

Gucci is pleased to announce the latest development in its Gucci Places project, the initiative designed to encourage people to explore those diverse locations around the world that have inspired the House and with which it maintains a special relationship.

The very first Gucci Place, unveiled in 2017, was Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England, where Gucci supported the House Style exhibition. Chatsworth was also the location of the Gucci Cruise 2017 advertising campaign. To this, Gucci has added a number of other locations over time, all designated as Gucci Places, and all of which hold special significance for the House and its Creative Director Alessandro Michele. 

 

 

Now Gucci has chosen two more Gucci Places and a special project to cultivate its growing roster.

Celebrating the House’s love of cinema, the first new Gucci Place is the Khudozhestvenny in Moscow, Russia, which is one of the world’s oldest cinemas still in operation. The venue opened on 10th November 1909 and became instantly popular amongst forward-thinking Muscovites. Though originally designed as a one-storey building with a dome and a luminous fountain in 1913, the cinema was redesigned and expanded by the leading light of Moscow’s Art Nouveau scene, architect Fyodor Schekhtel.

The Khudozhestvenny is also known for having debuted Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potyomkin. Now, following an extensive seven-year renovation, the Khudozhestvenny has reopened this spring, 111 years after its first screening. It currently has the status of an Object of Cultural Heritage of the Russian Federation hosting the premieres and film festivals with a curatorial approach to its program. Gucci’s relationship with this cinema debuted with an event to screen the Gucci Aria collection there in April 2021 followed by the recent opening of a Pop-Up store dedicated to the Gucci 100 collection. This partnership will continue unfolding through a special series of Gucci 100th Anniversary events and initiatives. 

 

 

The Savoy Hotel in London is the second new Gucci Place. This grand landmark holds a very special place in Gucci’s heart as it is where the founder of the House, Guccio Gucci, worked as a liftboy in the early years of the 20th century. This experience led him to develop a love for luxurious luggage and leather goods, which he used as inspiration for the creation of his own business in Florence in 1921.

 

 

 

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Now, exactly 100 years later, Gucci is celebrating its centenary with a number of initiatives at The Savoy, which stands as a spiritual home for the House in London.  In addition, the hotel’s flagship Royal Suite will feature furniture, furnishings and decorative items from the Gucci Décor collection. Art and antiquities from Christie’s auction house have been carefully chosen to complement the aesthetic, envisioned to harmonise with the design and heritage of The Savoy. 

 

Finally, Gucci revisits its very first Gucci Place through a new development within the garden at Chatsworth. Collaborating with garden and landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith, Gucci and Chatsworth have been working since 2019 on the transformation of the 15-acre area known as Arcadia that lies at the heart of the garden at Chatsworth. 

Arcadia is designed as a flowering landscape, with planting on an epic scale. There are open, meadow-like glades giving views out into the park, contrasting with more secret and enclosed shady walks featuring carpets of woodland flowers. The new garden is now open to visitors.  

 

The idea behind Gucci Places is also to encourage people to discover interesting and unexpected stories about these special locations, all of which possess the quality of being able to surprise, arouse interest and inspire a creative response. The Gucci App offers features that allow users to become involved in the story of each location. The App is configured to use the geolocation services of a user’s mobile device so that when they are in the proximity of a Gucci Place you will receive a push notification to invite you to visit. When in the Gucci Place, the App allows users to check in and collect the associated badge, which can then be shared on social media. 

The App also provides a detailed description of the Place, featuring texts, pictures and/or videos. Users can also access an information section, which enables them to contact the Place by email or phone or visit its website.  

In addition to Chatsworth House and the two new additions to the programme, the other locations include: Maison Assouline, London, England; Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, Italy; Castello Sonnino, Montespertoli, Italy; Gucci Garden, Florence, Italy; Boboli Gardens, Florence, Italy; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California, USA; Dapper Dan Atelier Studio, New York City, New York, USA; Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA; Waltz, Nakameguro, Tokyo, Japan; Daelim Museum, Seoul, South Korea.