Sian Riley: October 2023

Have you been to The Gucci Gardens in Florence?

In short...its completely mad...in the best possible way! :)

For a special Maker Monday edition, I'm doing a little throwback to my amazing visit to this fully immersive experience.

The 'Archetypes' exhibition marked the 100th anniversary of the Gucci brand and Alessandro Michele's 6 years at the helm (although, he has since left the company). Michele wanted the rooms to highlight his narrative and express his vision and ideas for the 'unexpected and imaginary'. I thought the quote by William Blake was very apt as you walked in...the exhibition was very much what you had never seen before! - not that i knew it at the time.

There were multiple rooms, each with a different concept. I'll highlight some of my favourites and share some photos and videos to give a sense of what the experience was like.

First up...The Control Room

This was an interesting start...lots of screens playing promotional campaign videos from recent years, all loudly and all at the same time! I didn't realise till afterwards but each screen related to a room in the building, so gave an insight into the varying moods of each space.

Between each space, the corridors, stairs and landings were all covered in graffiti, giving an air of rebellious creativity to the experience. It was interesting....a lot of the rooms appeared quite refined when you stepped in them, but walking between the spaces amongst the graffiti gave it a stark contrast.

The Dionysus Dance Room

This space focussed on the Cruise 2016 collection - described as a 'slo-mo dance party' in the exhibition notes. The space was filled with mirrors that contained videos of the campaign video and the 16th century mansion where the video was shot. The hand-painted frescos that featured in the campaigns also appeared within the video snapshots, on the drapes on each wall and clearly influenced the colour scheme of the room. Although the space wasn't busy with visitors, as the mirrors were so large you turned a corner and bumped into people as you couldn't see them!

The Tokyo Tribe Room

Looking to the AW 2016 campaign of a 'colourful, chaotic trip through Tokyo', it was the front end of a truck seemingly immerging from the wall that immediately grabbed my attention. A full light and projection disco truck provided the soundtrack for the variety of pieces on display; all giving a distinctly 'disco' vibe, and the pink and turquoise flashing lights added to the mood. Because the light was so dark, it was quite difficult to see the garments behind the glass, but some of the embroidery on the garments was fabulous to look at when the lights came up.

The Gucci Collectors Room

The room theme changed to something calmer for the 'Gucci Collectors' room and the AW 2018 collection that focused on the passions of collectors. The room was fully mirrored and contained an array of eccentric collections from cuckoo clocks, butterflies, trainers, soft toys and randomly...wigs. The clocks i found funny as they were each set to slightly different times and would chime at random moments. The mirrors on the floors were also a little disconcerting as it felt like you weren't walking on anything! I'm not afraid of heights but it did give the illusion of being above something with a very long drop down!

Although there were are many more spaces, here are my top 3....

The Gucci Gothic Room

Up next was the Cruise 2019 collection; setting sail for lands unknown to escape from flooded lands, models (described in the notes as 'young dreamers') and their animals sought refuge from the rain on a boat. It gave a 'Noah's Ark' vibe in some areas but it was the presentation of the room that i found most enjoyable. Although there were other fully immersive spaces in this exhibition (2 of them i'll talk about shortly), this was one of the few that hit all the senses. The videos on the walls changed the light in the space, the temperature was cooler than in other spaces, the sound of the blustery wind and rain all transported you the the time and place of this campaign, and the smell matched with a wet and rainy environment (which may not sound as pleasant as it sounds but it worked well). There was also marsh grass along the side to run your hands through to bring some texture to the space. This was one of the strongest rooms that aligned to Michele's narrative of the 'unexpected' and 'imaginary' as it successfully transported you away from the heat and warmth of Florence.

The Soul Scene Room

Northern Soul was the key inspiration for the Pre-Fall 2017 collection; as a vehicle of self-expression on the dancefloor and its ability to help you 'let go' and embrace the joys of youth. For me, the circular space inside a streamer curtain played a video of models dancing in the collection and embodied this 'joyful' mood well - so much so i found myself dancing along as well! The mannequins were styled in collection looks in a variety of breakdance poses - there was also a random lizard on the floor as well. Not sure of the lizards connection to Northern Soul but it certainly hit the eccentric notes of the exhibition.

And now to my final favourite room of the visit...

The 'In Bloom' Room

Compared to the others, this room was incredibly simple; no dancing or singing, no flashing lights...just a meadow with a sofa in it and the smell of Gucci Bloom in the air. It was opposite a window with a montage of Gucci-clad space explorers and a T-Rex which i didn't quite understand but again, it fit with the eccentric, slightly 'mad' vibe that had been running through all the rooms so far. I'm not sure why this room appealed to me as much as it did; maybe the calmness of it in comparison to the other rooms? the gentle feminine and floral nature that ran thorough it? But part of it was definitely the smell - so much so that i bought a bottle of the perfume for a family member the following Christmas, so the gentle advertising in this space was very much on point.

As immersive exhibitions go, this was really enjoyable. I think the contrasting spaces really helped as you never knew what to expect as you turned a corner. Its also a much more creative way to spread the word about a brand, and encourage people to visit and immerse themselves in...and as i said at the start, it was 'mad'...and i loved every minute of it.

If you do have the opportunity to go to Florence and see this in person, i highly recommend. Florence is an amazing city with lots of wonderful art galleries, famous landmarks and food; so there would be lots of things to do on a visit. However, if Florence is a little too far, you can either look at The Gucci Gardens immersive website that gives you a sense of the new exhibition spaces on show, or Gucci have a new immersive exhibition that has just opened in London that is closer to home.

BCU Fashion trip to Kleins Haberdashery

Florence Highlight Special: Gucci Gardens

First up...The Control Room

The Dionysus Dance Room

The Tokyo Tribe Room

The Gucci Collectors Room

The Gucci Gothic Room

The Soul Scene Room

The 'In Bloom' Room

...and such an amazing Afternoon :)

Sew a Tunic Top Workshop at MAC Birmingham - The Morning

Let's Pack for Tomorrows Workshop

New MAC Workshops now available!

A work outing....

'Seamless' by Sarah Sze (1999)

Monday Mood

Sew a Tunic Top Workshop Coming Soon!