Visiting the Gucci Museum (Lauren Wilson)

The wall within the museum showing the Gucci crest and well-known diamond pattern.

The Gucci Museo is home to many of Gucci's most famous designs and products, although, unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos or to publicly publish images from within the Gucci Museo.

The first area of our tour was the art exhibition which had only been opened the night before at an important event. The artwork featured represented radical feminism by Lee Lozano from the US, Alina Szapocznikow from Poland and Evelyne Axell from Belgium. This is the first time these 3 artworks have been featured together in Europe and together their explores the female figure, which when produced in the 1960s and 1970s was criticised. 

Following this exhibition, the group was shown around Lifestyle, Travel, Flora, Bamboo, Logomania, Evening, and my favourite, Handbags. Within the room of handbags their iconic Bamboo bag could be seen alongside beautiful totes made from crocodile skin and unique animal clasps. 

The Evening area displayed the Premier Collection of 2012, with the dresses being worn by Selma Hayek, Evan Rachel Wood, Cameron Diaz and Jessica Chastain for a range of awards ceremonies and film festivals. These dresses were made mainly as means of promotion and although the designer often has a particular actress or celebrity in mind when designing a dress, it was more likely that the press office chose which dress could be worn by who. 

Our guide around the museum was extremely informative and answered several questions, one being why there was no items from the period Tom Ford designed for Gucci. She told us that since he had left Gucci, he was not spoken about as they aimed to change their image and distract from the provocative style that Tom Ford had used. However, as much as he was not spoken about, it was clear that if it was not for Ford, the company would not have had such success. Ford arrived at the company when they were losing their customers and no longer seen as innovative and he secured their survival through producing sexy designs and ensuring celebrities wore their pieces.

Overall, my experience at the Gucci Museo was very interesting and enjoyable and I found that this was a clever form of promotion in itself. Its location is very central within Florence and since being opened 2 years ago, it has increased the popularity of the Gucci store in Florence. The museum not only promotes Gucci's past so that styles can be revisited, but also features a cafe (which have G-shaped sugar cubes), a store selling exclusive products and a library of a huge range of books.