Gucci’s Design Project
After the Gucci Ancora fashion collections, the Italian brand's creative director Sabato De Sarno is planning a project called Design Ancora that will be unveiled — fittingly — during Milan's Design Week. It will be staged at Gucci's Via Montenapoleone flagship and run April 15 to 21, concurrently with the city's international furniture and design trade show Salone del Mobile.
Design Ancora will showcase a special edition of five objects
“from a bygone era that are symbols of Italianity, and even more so of Milananness, with the intention of representing contemporaneity through the interpretation of their iconicity,” stated Gucci, without disclosing additional details. “The golden age of Italian design has contributed to broadcast worldwide the Italian mastery, across craftsmanship and serial reproduction.”
Architect Guillermo Santomà will contribute to the project by designing the space to present the products. These will be available for purchase on Gucci's website.
De Sarno has paid tribute to Italian creativity and design through
Gucci's renovated flagship in Milan's Via Montenapoleone, unveiled in December.
In the flagship, Italian furniture design pieces include Cassina's “Utrecht”
armchair by Gerrit
Thomas Rietveld; the “Maralunga” sofa by Vico Magistretti for Cassina's iMaestri Collection; the
“La Bambola” armchair by Mario Bellini, and “TuftyTime” sofa system by Patricia Urquiola for B& B Italia; the “Rod” seat by
Piero Lissoni for Living Divani, and the “Gladstone” table by Rodolfo Dordoni for Minotti.
De Sarno is an art collector and his passion for the arts is telegraphed throughout the store, which is rendered unique by the selection of modern and contemporary works by both midcareer and established artists and chosen by curator Truls Blaasmo. Reinforcing the connection to the city, the boutique displays works from Milanese masters such as Lucio Fontana, Getulio Alviani, Liliana Moro and Franco Mazzucchelli, along with works from international artists such as Nathlie Provosty, Jaime Poblete, François Durel, Michael Rey, Herbert Hamak, Adji Dieye and Augustas Serapinas, among others.
Over the years De Sarno has become a collector of archival fashion pieces, in addition to contemporary art works. Marking the unveiling of his fashion collections, the designer conceived his “Gucci Prospettive” series of books. For example,
Stefano Collicelli Cagol, director of the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato, interpreted the vision for De Sarno's first chapter, named “Milano Ancora.” The series aims to celebrate Milan with its art works, literature excerpts, music, cinema and fashion, narrating fragments of the city's cultural and artistic history from the post-war period to the present day.