During my trip to Europe last summer, I had an opportunity to visit the Gucci Museum in Florence. It was not part of my plan to visit it, but I found that, on the map I had, it was very close to the area I was visiting. So, I decided to stop by.
I’ve been fashion-conscious since I was a young teenager and I used to buy a few fashion magazines regularly to read and also to develop my own taste. Since I started spending more time on painting, I became less interested in fashion. But I still like to shop for clothes that are of my taste and go well with my looks. My interest in fashion has come back in the last few years. That was another reason I had decided to visit the museum.
The visit to the Gucci Museum was pleasant from the beginning to the end, not only because all the displays and the interior were fantastic, but also because all of the staff who worked there were nice and friendly. They kindly assisted me with what I was interested in.
The Gucci Museum consists of three floors. The upper two floors are the museum and the ground floor is a store showcasing the latest selections available only from that store. There is also a stationary section on the ground floor. The museum had a superb collection of bags, shoes, dresses and accessories. And they ranged from those from the early years’ to more recent ones. There were also notebooks with some drafts of Gucci’s designs and the pattern on some of the scarves. The bathroom door was hidden in a room whose wall was painted with zebras, monkeys, tigers and horses, like a fantasy world.

When I went back downstairs to see the store on the ground floor, the first representative I spoke to came to me and asked me how the museum was. I answered with excitement that it was wonderful and such an inspiration.
There was one thing I kept wondering about while looking at the displays in the museum. I was hesitant to ask her about it at first, but she was very friendly and easy to talk to so I dared to ask her my question. It was about why there were so many designs that included insects or animals. I had been wondering about it since I had first seen a recent Gucci’s newsletter at home. There was often a bag with a dragonfly or a butterfly or even a cicada. Many dresses and scarves in the museum were decorated prominently with birds and flowers. The painting in the room where the bathroom was was also all about animals.
Then she happily explained to me that it was because Gucci feels that people should stop using animals for materials and also to voice his idea about the protection of wildlife. When I heard that, I was so glad that I had asked her this question. It was because there was a legitimate reason and a very important message in what Gucci designed. He is not only a designer but also he is a creator and an influencer. He is conscious about what is going on in the world and tries to reflect it in his design.
The representative also explained that the illustration on the wall was painted by a new Gucci illustrator. I was familiar with the style of the illustration because I had often seen it in the recent newsletters.
In fact, I myself have a similar theme for the work I create, which is to bring to the public the presence of lives in the natural world and a sense of the significance of nature to the Earth.
Before I visited Florence, I hadn’t even known Gucci was Italian and that he was from Florence, but having learned about him and his inspiration more, I felt a little closer to him after this visit.