Gucci Cosmos, from its beginnings in 19th-century London to its founding in Florence and its successful global expansion, is an experiential incarnation of the spirit of Gucci. This stunning experiential exhibition staged at 180 Strand in London pays homage to the House’s most iconic patterns and goods as well as the extraordinary abilities of its artisans and designers. From Guccio Gucci in 1921 to the present, the show celebrates the height of innovation and Italian craftsmanship. The house is a global leader in luxury goods, famous designs, and forward-thinking concepts.

Maria Luisa Frisa, Curator of the show and Fashion Historian said: “Gucci Cosmos, a project in the form of an exhibition inaugurated in Shanghai and now located in London, was an extraordinary opportunity for me to traverse the universe of Gucci through an ever-different lens. And I was able to tell its story through the clothes, objects, elements, people, and contexts that made this brand iconic and a trailblazer within fashion and collective visual culture for over a century. It is a challenge to work on an exhibition that evolves based on different spaces and the atmosphere of the cities that host it, and therefore demands reflection on the special connection between London and fashion, to reconfigure the relationship between the elements and the selection of objects. Gucci Cosmos is an immersive expository experience in which the origin story and history itself are continuously put to the test by the imagination of the future.”

Highlights include ‘Gucci Ancora’ where visitors enter a room directly inspired by Creative Director Sabato De Sarno’s debut collection and runway show for the House. Decorated entirely in the new signature Rosso Ancora shade of red, the room features a central semi-transparent parallelepiped structure containing screens within a mirror-clad inner chamber. Projected onto these semi-transparent walls is a series of personal memories, phrases, and other fragments in both Italian and English, their words appearing and disappearing in mesmerizing motion, accompanied by an evocative video and sound installation featuring the voices of Es Devlin – designer of the show – and Sabato De Sarno. To underline the space’s core aesthetic of installation art merging with poetry and stories, the perimeter walls of ‘Gucci Ancora’– ancora is an Italian word that means ‘also now, again, one more time’ – are lined with semi-transparent cards featuring words that visitors can move around to create their own compositions.

Gucci has long drawn inspiration from the equestrian world, a connection celebrated in Gucci Cosmos’s ‘Zoetrope’ world which opens the exhibition. Its circular space is punctuated with immersive large-format screens presenting evocative video footage accompanied by a soundscape of galloping hooves and a voice that recites equestrian-inspired words to the equine rhythm. Multiple archival pieces demonstrate how the House’s different equestrian icons have fired the imagination over time, such as the Horsebit, with its double ring and bar, which became a distinctive element of the House in 1953 when Aldo Gucci introduced it on the iconic loafer, and the signature green-red-green Web stripe, inspired by the strap that holds a horse’s saddle in place. Visitors follow the Horsebit hardware from the original loafer presented in a version from the early 1960s, a 1960s belt, a 1970s wool and suede dress, and a new platform loafer worn with an all-over Web precious leather jacket and culottes from Sabato De Sarno’s debut Spring Summer 2024 collection. ‘Zoetrope’ also demonstrates how the House’s creative directors have playfully subverted equestrianism’s traditional aristocratic practices, with examples including a Tom Ford-designed riding crop and Horsebit black leather corset by the amazing Alessandro Michele.

The show is a must-see and runs in London until 31st December 2023.

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