Gucci Cosmos
Inside the Gucci Cosmos exhibition / COURTESY OF GUCCI
Upon arrival at the Gucci Cosmos installation, currently open at Strand 180, you know that you’re in for a treat.
The outside of the building has been turned into a sort of immersive billboard, in bold Gucci red and green, and after waiting in a busy line you are ushered in, group by group, by staff in neatly tailored suits.The journey begins standing outside a lift. And stepping into the luxurious red interior we are told the story of Guccio Gucci.The Gucci story, or at least part of it, is pretty fresh in the current popular culture hive mind – thanks to the screenings of House of Gucci in 2021. But we don’t tend to think about the brand's founder, Guccio, and how he nurtured the brand that blossomed into the fashion house we know today.
Inside the Gucci Cosmos exhibition / COURTESY OF GUCCI
Guccio Gucci in London
Guccio Gucci was a luggage porter at the world-famous Savoy Hotel in London as a young man, spending his days escorting customers up and down in the famous lift. The Savoy was home to the first electric elevator in London (1889), which was named ‘the Red Room’ and also the ‘Ascending Room.’ As such a novelty, it would prove quite daunting to guests, so it was decorated like a room, drinks were served in its interior, and guests were prompted to relax, chat, and treat it much like a room – instead of a rising lift. This is a beautifully poetic introduction to the rest of Gucci Cosmos, focusing on the small but extremely important space in which Guccio Gucci learnt what the wealthy, frequently traveling guests needed and wanted from both their luggage cases and from their glamorous clothes.
The traveling case was the starting point for Gucci as a brand 102 years ago, as were leather goods for which Gucci was famed before it became a big player in the fashion sphere. We explored this important icon first, in beautiful white rooms through panelled revolving doors which an extremely friendly and knowledgeable guide, in another perfect suit, told us were designed to pay further reference to The Savoy.
Gucci may be an Italian brand, but this exhibition really focused on the brand's deep roots in London too. This is the city where Guccio found his inspiration and spent so much of his time. It was actually fascinating to understand these links to a different city that have always been woven into the fabric of this Italian heritage brand.
Inside the Gucci Cosmos exhibition / COURTESY OF GUCCI
The Gucci Journey
Moving through wide winding hallways we saw important images that marked key moments in Gucci's development to its current form, fast forwarding us through Tom Ford's brand revival and into the present day, which is where the focus of this exhibition lay.
Key influences on the brand were lightheartedly explored - through one circular room surrounded by an immersive video of a horse galloping through the dark, and displaying clothing items inspired by equestrian gear, into a room filled with white flowers, dripping from the ceiling and climbing up the walls where they surrounded items crawling with Gucci’s signature florals, such as bohemian gowns and hand-painted silk scarves. Then through a beautiful turquoise archive with boxes upon boxes of Gucci handbags, drawers under cabinets that can be pulled out and their contents explored, and into a sunken space between two huge white figures lying parallel on their sides whilst swirling graphics are projected across their clothing and faces. Finally, into a self-rotating runway show, where iconic Gucci pieces moved slowly on display giving an IRL chance to peek at the details of pieces that most of us have only seen in pictures.
The exhibition actually ends with a peek into the future. In an immersive red room with the video moodboard of the next collection emanating from a cube in the center of the room, giving us all an insider glance at where Gucci is going next.
Inside the Gucci Cosmos exhibition / COURTESY OF GUCCI
Moving Forwards
The whole space was beautifully curated, the immersive and utterly Instagram perfect spaces were undoubtedly made to be photographed and shared. Whilst also creating a space so intrinsically Gucci that any visitor would leave feeling like they were a close friend of the house. It’s a brand experience piece no doubt, not an exhibition as such. Whilst key magical moments such as Guccio Gucci’s rise from the ‘red room’ that one could call fashion history were included it was just enough history to drive home a sense of wonder, not enough to dissect or critique any element of the brand. You can see that Gucci had a heavy part in the storytelling and curation of the show, which for me, having a desire to dig into everything, did limit the learning that I could do from the exhibition. However, I don’t think Gucci Cosmos existed to educate, I think it existed to inspire, astonish, and to create a brand experience that was beautiful. And this was a huge triumph. I would challenge anyone visiting to leave without a lingering feeling that Gucci is an amazing brand. With the totally built-out world within Strand 180, and the journey through different realms inside it, perfectly suited and friendly Gucci experts awaiting in every doorway to give you warm welcomes, information, and the service that a luxury customer would expect, it was truly a taste of the lifestyle that Gucci embodies, and that a lot of us aspire to enjoy.
The final room with its mysterious red moodboards was the cherry on the cake. A genius teaser of something coming next, making visitors feel like they’ve been given a sneak peek that no one else has – we were even all handed a unique postcard to keep as we left the final room. I guarantee that more visitors than not will be checking in on Gucci when they reveal what they have coming next. I will definitely be one of them.
