BACK HOME: Gucci’s creative director Sabato De Sarno is paying tribute to Florence, the city where the brand was founded in 1921, with his decision to present the cruise 2026 collection there on May 15. The event will be titled “Gucci Firenze.”
The exact location in the Italian city will be announced at a later date.
This will be De Sarno’s second cruise collection, following the show held in London last May at Tate Modern with guests including Dua Lipa, Demi Moore, Paul Mescal, and Kate and Lila Moss.
Florence was the stage for a destination show once before. De Sarno’s predecessor Alessandro Michele paraded Gucci’s cruise 2018 collection at the Palatina Gallery at Palazzo Pitti.
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Guccio Gucci opened his first eponymous leather goods shop on Via della Vigna Nuova in Florence in 1921, and the link with the city has only strengthened over the decades. Florence “embodies Italian craftsmanship and visionary creativity, while reaffirming [De Sarno’s] contemporary vision, deeply rooted in the brand’s heritage and lasting influence,” Gucci stated on Monday.
Gucci’s corporate offices stand in Casellina, a 30-minute drive from Florence, and the cutting-edge Gucci ArtLab, the leather goods and shoe industrial complex inaugurated in 2018, was erected in nearby Scandicci. The global digital client service hub, Gucci 9, is also located in Tuscany.
Florence is also home to Gucci’s storied boutique on Via de’ Tornabuoni, which opened in 1967, and the concept space at Palazzo della Mercanzia, formerly called Gucci Garden, and home to artistic and cultural event and to Gucci Osteria by Massimo Bottura — the first of four restaurants, with the others located in Beverly Hills, Tokyo and Seoul.
The Gucci Archive, located in Palazzo Settimanni on Via delle Caldaie, is also located in Florence. The space was acquired by Gucci in 1953 and has served as a factory, workshop, and showroom, before being turned into the house’s archives in 2021.
Gucci is the second brand to reveal its plans for the cruise season. Last week, Chanel, although still without a creative director after the exit of Virginie Viard in June, said that its destination show is scheduled for April 29 and will be set in Lake Como, Italy, though further details on the location remain under wraps.