Bag with a vengeance

Tim Yap(The Philippine Star)

September 15, 2024 - 12:00am

The Gucci B bag draws its name from an archive design.

The Gucci Blondie and the GG Milano bags are creative director Sabato de Sarno’s homage to the House.

MILAN — Stealth and Sabato de Sarno have been synonymous with each other, and ever since the new creative director of Gucci took over and painted the town (and the world) Ancora, the brand has quietly pulsated its own shade of rouge.

Milan is where his power is much felt, magnified to the world with his creations and recreations of iconic stuff of dreams. These beautiful things that once occupied his mind are now in the stores. From the runway collection which I witnessed last year to the shelves of the stores of the Gucci nearest you.

One such dream that’s been brought to life is the Gucci Blondie bag in leather or toile. Obviously drawn from Italy of the early ’70s, this piece collides preciousness and pragmatism: held on the shoulder, its emblematic logo is leather-clad or enabled with a technique drawn from Gucci’s jewelry.

In the early 1970s, the House created a new rounded iteration of the archival Interlocking G, the Gucci Blondie. The first bags, echoing the liberated spirit of the decade, featured the new emblem and were made in suede, a material which was common for the House to use at the time. The distinctive design bridged eras at the Cruise 2025 show in London, where it’s styled to be slung effortlessly over the shoulder, crafted from Tuscan leather or canvas with the GG monogram. Two versions of the signature logo are presented, one covered in leather and the other enameled following a technique the House used on jewelry in the 1970s. The Gucci Blondie bag, with the perfect roundness of its emblem, is instantly identifiable, weaving together House stories, creating a fusion of nostalgia and modernity.

Reintroduced in the Cruise 2025 collection, the Gucci B bag draws its name from an archive design, re-envisioned here with a relaxed silhouette and a detachable shoulder strap equipped with a D-ring for attaching items. You can never have too many attachments, you know.

There’s also this new top handle handbag with a puffy silhouette that also debuted at the Fall Winter 2024 fashion show during Milan Fashion Week, paying tribute to the vibrant city that inspired it. With added cues taken from established House icons and emblematic Double G hardware, it presents an evolution of the GG Marmont silhouette. A fresh take on an established classic. Very Sabato de Sarno.

The new top handle handbag with a puffy silhouette designed by creative director Sabato de Sarno, debuted at the fall-winter 2024 fashion show during Milan Fashion Week, pays tribute to the vibrant city that has inspired it. With cures taken from established House icons and emblematic Double G hardware, it presents an evolution of the GG Marmont silhouette. In the same way that the style marks a new chapter, it is also a personal reflection on the new chapter in Sabato’s life, his arrival in Milan. The city is a source of everlasting inspiration for the creative director and continues to inspire his narrative for the House. Adding depth to this homage, the GG Milano bag celebrates Milan for its art, fashion and design, each stitch infused with the essence of the city’s creative energy. Available worldwide, from September 2024.

This refreshed style marks a new chapter not just for Gucci but also for de Sarno, a personal reflection on his life. The city is a source of everlasting inspiration for the creative director and continues to inspire his narrative for the House. This is his homage to Milan and his love letter to Gucci: the GG Milano bag celebrates Milan for all that it is — full of art, fashion, design and a unique creative energy stitched into its very essence.

“Fashion design is a means to study, explore, interpret. After having expressed my ideas of desirability and sensuality, this is another piece of me, more romantic, more contradictory. I like taking something that we think we know and breaking away from its rules, taking it as far as it can go, without ever distorting it. Bringing it towards its opposite and finding harmony,” said the creative director.

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