In May of this year, Gucci kicked off its 100th anniversary celebrations in Florence, its birthplace, with Gucci Garden Archetypes, an elaborate showcase which isn’t only an ode to the iconic luxury brand’s history, but also a bold display of creative director Alessandro Michele‘s highly eclectic artistic vision. Following a stopover in Shanghai, the multifaceted show has now arrived in Tokyo, occupying no less than three exhibition halls in the city’s Shinagawa district. The exhibition is not only a splendorous affair, but also quite elaborate, exploring the abundance of sources that the luxury brand has tapped into for inspiration—from art and pop culture, to music and cinema, to create the fifteen major advertising campaigns orchestrated by Michele during his highly successful tenure. Presented across various rooms, using cutting-edge technology and innovative scenography, visitors find themselves immersed in evocative spaces, each with a different narrative, and all designed by Michele in collaboration with Florentine design bureau Archivio Personale.
Highlights include the Gucci Beauty room which features footage of a specific ad campaign for the Lipstick collection which claims to be ‘for the bold, the shining, on countless multi-screens for an immersive experience. In the Gucci Bloom room a rich scent permeates the air while the setting evokes a floral paradise. It’s a setting Michele has imagined for actress Dakota Johnson, feminist artist and photographer Petra Collins, and actress and model Hari Nef who he sees as icons of modern femininity. As said, a number of spaces are dedicated to the brand’s advertising campaigns, including a room dedicated to the 2018 Pre-Fall Collection advertising campaign which pays homage to the youth who participated in the 1968 May Revolution in Paris, which celebrated its 50th anniversary that year, featuring an abundance of graffiti. Another space features the Tokyo Lights 2016 Fall/Winter collection captured by imagery of the Japanese capital that keeps shining brightly at night with tens of thousands of sequins (on through Oct 31).
B + C Hall / E Hall
2-1-3 Higashi Shinagawa (Tennozu)
Tokyo 140-0002
Mon-Thu 11am-8pm
Fri-Sat 11am-9pm
Sun 11am-8pm
Reservations can be made on Gucci’s LINE account
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
