GUCCI ARCHIVES
Extreamly grateful for the warm welcome by Gabriele Giorgini and Lavinia Palombi, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut research group Coded Objects had the privilege of an extraordinary visit to the Gucci Archives yesterday. It was a rare opportunity to experience such a beautifully curated collection and to benefit from their generosity in sharing their time, expertise, and the fascinating history of the brand with us. We were captivated not only by Gucci’s iconic historical pieces but also by the materials, craftsmanship, and the artisans behind them.
For me, having begun my career as a print designer, the story behind Gucci’s Flora print was particularly striking. Designed in 1966 by Vittorio Accornero de Testa, an illustrator renowned for his work in women’s magazines between the 1920s and 1930s, Flora remains a masterpiece of textile design. Accornero, who also illustrated fairy tales and children’s books, created over 80 scarf designs for Gucci, yet it was Flora that defined an era and became one of the House’s most iconic motifs.
A symphony of botanical elements, Flora is a meticulously detailed floral composition featuring berries, insects, and nine vibrant bouquets—including lilies, ivy, poppies, cornflowers, daffodils, and irises. The silk company Fiorio, based in Como and now part of the Canepa Group, achieved the remarkable feat of silk screen-printing the 37 colours of this print, a task later taken over by Mantero.
The Flora motif is tied to the heritage of Florence, echoing the allegory of La Primavera by Sandro Botticelli, where the nymph Flora wears a garment adorned with flowers. Botticelli, like Accornero centuries later, depicted flora with botanical accuracy, referencing herbarium specimens of the time and the very gardens of the Villa Medicea di Castello. The species depicted by Botticelli are typical of Tuscany, making use exclusively of local species. Plants on Flora’s robe and foliage include daisies, anemones, strawberries, cornflowers, rose, carnation and wallflower. Vittorio Accornero de Testa also used exclusively flower species available in and around Florence and most probably was helped by the use of hernbariums, reinforcing the artistic and ecological lineage between Renaissance art, nature, and luxury textile design.
To extend this research, I also visited Florence’s Botanical Museum at the Museo di Storia Naturale, home to one of the world’s largest herbaria, as well as La Specola, where are held the extraordinary 18th- and 19th-century wax botanical models produced by the Officina di Ceroplastica and sculptor Clemente Susini, whose anatomical waxes remain masterpieces of scientific art.
A truly inspiring experience, connecting fashion, art history, and natural science across time.
https://virtualtourgucciarchive.gucci.com/#/first-floor/seteria