Sandra‘s Closet

A longstanding mainstay within the House’s collections, «The Jackie» experienced a well-chronicled rise to icon status—ever since its debut in 1961, the handbag’s perpetual presence on the arms of celebrated figures around the world crystallized its everlasting association with their signature sophistication. Jackie Kennedy was spotted in the ’70s carrying the G1244 bag by Gucci, that was the perfect accessory to match her iconic tortoiseshell glasses. Eventually, Gucci renamed the bag in her honour, dubbing the style the «Jackie» bag.

Today, Dakota Johnson finds herself at the latest inflection point of the line’s celebrated chronology in which a certain attitude encounters a certain era, marking the beginning of a new chapter through the House’s latest campaign. Johnson makes her way through everyday moments in Los Angeles with different versions of the Jackie 1961, each with its own personality, each perfectly paired to the occasion. The film and imagery, captured by Glen Luchford, pay homage to the style’s storied origins as spontaneous snapshots highlight the silhouette’s intrinsic versatility and enduring elegance, reflecting a state of co-existence that spans decades and personas.

The Jackie 1961
Following a distinguished line of reiterations, each emblematic of its time, today’s Jackie 1961 emerges to transcend the traditional with its sleek silhouette and universal attitude. The selection is presented in three different sizes—mini, small, and medium—in a wide range of colors that highlights the design’s inherent versatility. Clean lines bring the focus to the unique piston closure, as well as the quality of the material itself, whether natural grain, patent, or precious leather, or the emblematic GG Supreme canvas.

A beautiful new iteration: The Jackie 1961 crocheted raffia and leather shoulder bag

A longer, removable shoulder strap, either in leather or as a chain, enhances the Jackie 1961’s adaptable personality and practicality. Within each collection, the House introduces creative interpretations, including in woven raffia and straw as well as with velvet tapestry patterns for Cruise 2023.

My favorite this season: The Jackie 1961 small leather shoulder bag in green

The original model introduced in 1961 became expressive of the 1960s and 1970s jetsetter lifestyle for which Gucci was known and new sensibilities were brought to the signature style in 1999 and 2009, drawing from a contemporary intuition and attitude and ever- assuming new characters that defy definition – fitting seamlessly in any wardrobe.

TO SHOP THE GUCCI JACKIE 1961, CLICK HERE PLEASE.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Gucci and Getty Images
Art Director: Christopher Simmonds Photographer & Director: Glen Luchford
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Origins, travel, experience. And the certainty that a suitcase is not just a container. From the culture of travel that forms the history of the brand comes the new Gucci Valigeria campaign, featuring actor, screenwriter, director, and musician Ryan Gosling.

Creative Director Alessandro Michele, through the lens of photographer Glen Luchford, upends a typical sense of narrative and sets the campaign in a dreamlike dimension that goes beyond the boundaries that separate it from reality to recount a present built on the possibilities of the imagination and of an encounter.

The Gucci Savoy collection is the narrative result of a story that takes flight from the typical splendors of travel to confer the value of memory to the origins of a brand that was created from an intuition and from the observation of potentialities, precisely thanks to travel, developing discoveries of worlds and of diverse cultural manners.

«Travel for Gucci was never purely physical. Gucci is the brand that accompanied the artists, writers, actors, and directors of Hollywood on their journeys… This is why I wanted the advertising campaign to recount a situationist dimension where the protagonist traverses a “non-place” that is first and foremost a mental place, the same as those who, in the past and present, choose Gucci because they grasp the significance of creativity used to build imaginary places. And it is for this reason that a Gucci suitcase appears as a magical suitcase,» says Creative Director Alessandro Michele.

It is precisely in travel that the heritage of Gucci finds its origins. Founded in Florence in 1921 by Guccio Gucci, who more than twenty years prior when he was just 17, emigrates to Paris and then to London. The young Florentine works first as a porter at The Savoy in London, the go-to destination for international travelers. The very young Guccio Gucci comes into contact with the magic of travel that, at the time, was synonymous with discovery, discussion, study, and a bridge between diverse cultures. It was a time in which traveling signified experience, displacing the certainties of one’s social environment, a pursuit of the unexpected, of a will to encounter and to know. The return to Florence can’t but remember that observed and studied reality, assimilated and ready to be transferred into the practice of work. Guccio Gucci will do it with his first suitcases, trunks, bags, hat boxes. All the containers required to bring with oneself, on a journey, those necessities to represent oneself and one’s culture in an unknown and often foreign place.

In a narrative inversion that fills a stretch of space-time, the same containers appear as protagonists in the campaign, which presents the Gucci Savoy collection
including trolleys, hard and soft suitcases, duffle bags, trunks, hat boxes, and beauty cases. Objects that encapsulate experiences and desires that, in the images and video of the campaign, fill the bed of a polished pick-up truck in which the new collection lives side by side with historical pieces and that, in this plausible story of possibilities, are also repositories of dreams.

And it is this reality-adjacent dream that Ryan Gosling is living. At the end of a journey studded with arrivals and departures, he is introduced to surprising places through a trunk that becomes a gateway to fantastical worlds, which will turn out to be more real than any imagination could conceive. Because it leads to that reality of discovery that has always had the ability to build unexpected worlds.

The Gucci Savoy collection, which is part of the House’s wider Gucci Valigeria travel selection, is distinguished by a combination of heritage-infused design elements including the GG monogram and/or the Web stripe, offered in both soft and hard-sided iterations. The collection comprises items for every travel need, designed to be used now and for many years to come as classic and contemporary elements come together within a timeless aesthetic.

I will be going to Florence with Gucci in the beginning of October and cannot wait to explore everything where it all had started…

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Gucci #GucciValigeria
Creative Director: Alessandro Michele – Art Director: Christopher Simmonds – Photographer & Director: Glen Luchford – Make up: Thomas De Kluyver – Hair: Paul Hanlon / DISCLOSURE: We may earn commission from links on this page, but I only recommend products I love. Promise.

Cinema is a fantasy: acting a craft, like fashion, that brings dreams to life. For the Prada Holiday 2021 campaign, ‘A Midwinter’s Night Dream’, a cinematic dreamscape is created using ground-breaking technology, transporting both stars and audience.

Cinema has always inspired Prada – evocative of complex storytelling, further narrative and deeper meanings. In an evolution of Prada’s heritage of campaigns featuring leading Hollywood actors, four new talents debut for Holiday 2021: Julia Garner (Ozark, The Assistant, Inventing Anna), Shira Haas (Unorthodox, Asia), Louis Partridge (Pistol, Enola Holmes) and Taylor Russell (Waves, Bones & All). They are captured in a winter’s scene as they quest across a frozen terrain – revealed as Los Angeles, fantastically engulfed in snow. Dressed in a collection designed for celebration, they move towards a joyous gathering – a definition of the holiday season.

Fusing together film and fashion, this short movie is based on an original story and script by cult screenwriter and director Mary Harron (American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page, Daliland), and is directed by Glen Luchford – a talent who has worked with Prada from the 1990s through to today. In a further crossover between creative realms, the campaign’s imagery is drawn from film stills – presented as bold cinematic panoramas, each captures an enigmatic moment.

Stories of voyages are constantly told through cinema’s rich history: here, they are brought to life with cutting-edge 21st-century technology. ‘A Midwinter’s Night Dream’ utilises the Volume, a virtual effects tool originally engineered for The Mandalorian – an immersive experience composed of a curved cocoon of glowing LED screens. The Volume is – like the story – transportive, recreating environments, inventing new realities.

Fashion and moviemaking unite in their wish to convey a story, one that brings people together in shared experiences. The Prada Holiday 2021 campaign is a celebration: of cinema, of fashion, of community, and of dreaming. You can watch the movie here.
And the new Prada winter collection is definitely a midwinter’s night dream.

LoL, Sandra

Credits: Photography and film: Glen Luchford Creative Direction: Ferdinando Verderi Talents: Julia Garner, Shira Haas, Louis Partridge, Taylor Russell

Gucci is pleased to announce the development of Gucci Places, its initiative designed to invite people to explore locations around the world that have inspired the House.
The very first Gucci Place, which was unveiled earlier this year was Chatsworth in Derbyshire, England, where Gucci supported House Style exhibition. Chatsworth was also the location of the Gucci Cruise 2017 advertising campaign.

Gucci Cruise 2017 advertising campaign

Now Gucci has chosen a variety of further locations that reflect the taste and values peculiar to the House, and designated these: Gucci Places. The idea is to encourage people to discover interesting and unexpected stories about these places, and so become part of a community. The Gucci Places programme is thus a network of locations connected to Gucci, all of which possess the quality of being able to surprise, arouse interest and inspire a creative response.

To bring the Gucci Places programme to life, the Gucci App has functionality that enables people to become involved in the story of each designated Place. It is configured to use the geolocation services of a user’s mobile device so that when you are in the proximity of a Gucci Place you will receive a push notification to invite you to visit the relevant location. When in the Gucci Place, the App allows users to check in and win a badge associated with it. You can thus collect the badges of all the Places recommended by Gucci, and can share these 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. Each Place has a section on the App dedicated to the events it is staging, enabling you to browse the scheduled programme.

Furthermore, an exclusive selection of products, based on those in Gucci’s Courrier collection, is being created as part of the Gucci Places initiative. Special patches inspired by each Gucci Place have been developed and will feature on the products, which will be available for purchase at the relevant Gucci Place (when feasible) and at the nearest Gucci store.

The patches are inspired by the Place in question and reflect Gucci’s eclectic aesthetic, incorporating motifs that reference the location – a coat of arms, perhaps, or a design detail from a building.
The first products featuring the Chatsworth patch have been on sale at Chatsworth House and the Gucci flagship store in Sloane Street, London, since July.

The new Gucci Places are:

The Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, Italy. Founded in 1604, the this was the first public library in Europe and has a vast bibliographic collection, featuring manuscripts that belonged to the Augustinians. Gucci hosted a private party here to celebrate the publication of A Magazine Curated By Alessandro Michele, and it was also the setting of the Gucci Pre-Fall 2017 look book, shot by Derek Ridgers.

Castello Sonnino, Montespertoli, Firenze, Italy. A family home, historical wine estate and an international educational centre, Castello Sonnino was originally a customs post between the territories of Florence and Siena, and dates back to the 13th century. It was the location of the Gucci Cruise 2016 advertising campaign.

Moreover, Caterina de Renzis Sonnino, who lives and owns the Castle, has starred in the latest Gucci Cruise 2018 advertising campaign.

Maison Assouline, London, United Kingdom. Originally a banking hall designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1922, this Grade II listed building is now home to the all-encompassing Assouline cultural lifestyle hub. The limited-edition Gucci book, Blind For Love, by Nick Waplington, documenting the Gucci Cruise 2017 collection, was published by Assouline and presented at this store at a special book signing by the artist.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California, USA. In 2011, LACMA launched its first annual Art + Film Gala. Each year the event celebrates the work of an accomplished filmmaker and artist who have made significant contributions in art and film. Since its inauguration, Gucci has been the presenting sponsor of this benefit event.

Bibo, Hong Kong. An extraordinary restaurant with a 1930s feel. Here, seasonal French gastronomy is served in a space featuring the works of some of the world’s most renowned contemporary artists, including Banksy, Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons. To celebrate the #GucciGram Tian digital art project, which took place during Art Basel Hong Kong 2016, Gucci held a private dinner at Bibo.

Waltz, Nakameguro, Tokyo, Japan. A shop specialising in cassettes, vinyl, VHS tapes and boomboxes, Waltz is a truly unique place. It also carries old magazine editions. The area of Meguro and its nostalgic atmosphere, where Waltz is located, evokes the set of the Fall Winter 2016 campaign which was shot in Tokyo by Glen Luchford.

LoL, Sandra

Photos:Courtes of Gucci

Below you can enjoy GUCCI’s new campaign for pre-fall 2016, photographed by Glen Luchford. The photos are set in a glass-domed tropical aviary where wild plants and wandering flamingos move freely across patterned rugs and among piles of old books. The images portray an energetic, emotional, surreal riot of colours, textures and movement, recalling the spirit of many of the House’s new flora and fauna-based prints. In this chaotic and cluttered wonderland, more is definitely more. My mantra!

Personally speaking, I am drooling over the pink Sylvie bag, the cat embellished sweaters and shiny pleated skirts. Another collection that is to die for!

Bravo, Alessandro Michele, you are getting better and better!
To visit the GUCCI website click HERE please.

LoL, Sandra

 Photos: Courtesy of Gucci