November 17, 2017 |
We’re coming to the very best time of the year. A time do all our favourite things, namely, eat, drink in the middle of the day and bestow, or more importantly, receive, large amounts of gifts. Excitement comes, then, in the form of Gucci and their annual Gift Giving campaign, which, we’re delighted to say, is here in all its usual glory. And this year comes with added tech-y fun – interactive content on the Gucci app, filters that can be used to customise your pics, digital cards, and software that will animate Gucci shop windows when you scan a sticker displayed on the glass. How very modern. And lord knows, Gucci know how to do a window. This year, expect a temple-themed spectacular; Gucci’s gifts interspersed with rotating mannequins in a living room set, bordered by a candy-pink neon frame. We’re feeling warmed just at the thought.
The pièce de résistance however, is a book-cum-catalogue featuring a series of digital works by Spanish artist and hot-young-thing Ignasi Monreal. Still in his early twenties, Monreal first hooked up with Gucci in 2015 with his distinctive and surreal comic-style illustrations for the #guccigram project. The narrative of this new book draws on several references; the tale of Icarus, he who flew too close to the sun, Greek mythology and Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away masterpiece, all while seamlessly incorporating Gucci’s loot of Gifts. In one, a Gucci serpent wraps itself around the booted ankles of Euydice, while in another, a winged group of ‘No-Face’s’ perch on a building with Gucci bags swinging from their necks. “Icarus fascinates me because of his story, which could be read a bit like a mantra, I guess,” says Monreal. “If you fly too close to the sun, you’re going to get burned. If you fly too low, you’re going to drown in the sea. It feels quite bluntly obvious, but I find it quite timeless, and reassuring.”
In other Gucci news this week, the ‘Gucci Garden’ is set to be unveiled on the opening day of next year’s Pitti Uomo. Originally conceived by Alessandro Michele, it further strengthens Gucci’s commitment to all things green and growing following the announcement earlier this year that they would be donating €2 million to restore the Florentine Boboli Gardens over the next three years. Where would we be without you Gucci? Nowhere, that’s where.
Gucci’s Gifts will be available online and in store
