Gucci Partially Anew by Andrew Blair

Pulling away from the Celebrity ideal that plagued Tom Ford’s Gucci Frida
Giannini has brought back moderation and humility to the Gucci name. Frida
Giannini, the new head of both the female and male lines, has made it a goal
to bring Gucci back to its modern roots, an idea established by Tom Ford (1).

Admiring Ford’s desires to reestablish Gucci’s vintage icons, Giannini
has engulfed every line with patterns, fasteners, and straps that where once
associated with the name Gucci.

With further aspirations to bring Gucci’s look full circle during its’ 85th anniversary,
Giannini remodeled the sexed-up Gucci instituted by Ford. With warm brighter
colors that dismissed Ford’s dark rich colors Giannini shows her appetite to develop
Gucci’sallure with her personal interpretation of Guccio’s original vision (2).

In an attempt to change Gucci’s appearance successfully Giannini’s first
line was light and fun, a departure from Ford’s serious and imposing style.
With the use of Gucci’s vintage Flora print, and the revamping of the Gucci
monogram with a lighter less dense typeface Giannini began Gucci’s ascension
past Ford’s sex driven ideals to the realm of beauty (3). From the catalogue to
the ad campaign Giannini’s progression towards Gucci’s principles of beauty
and métier where unmistakable.


No one would deny that Giannini’s progression of Gucci was necessary. With
the absence of Ford, Gucci needed to become anew, and Giannini answered this
desire cohesively and abruptly. Though the majority of critics would agree
with this, many thought that Giannini’s choices where safe and uninspired
(2). It is this overwhelming consensus that seems to hinder Giannini’s
vision, at least in how Gucci has chosen to portray her latest summer line
within their ad campaign.

With the notion that Giannini’s last line was too innocent, Gucci has chosen
to reestablish Ford’s mentality of sex over beauty. Because of this lack of
faith in Giannini’s vision Gucci has refashioned ads from Ford’s time at Gucci
in an attempt freshen up Giannini’s clothing.

With Ford’s vision of glamour infused into the current advertisements for
Gucci, Giannini and Gucci’s vision has been hindered. Using Ford’s tactics
deters both the progression of Gucci and the ideas instituted by Frida
Giannini. If Gucci is looking for a long term relationship with Giannini one
may assume her lines will need some breathing room away from that which was
Tom Ford.


Work Cited:
(1) Gucci by Gucci, Douglas Lloyd. Vendome Press, New York. 2006
(2) New York Times, Cathy Horyn,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/fashion/thursdaystyles/30GUCCI.html?ex=1301374800&en=443406bbbf262ffb&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss,
March 30,2006.
(3) Style.com, Nicole Phelps,
http://www.style.com/fashionshows/collections/2007RST/review/GUCCI, June
14, 2006