‘Gucci Cosmos’ is one of two exhibitions currently underway at the 180 Studios in London. With curation by fashion theorist Maria Luisa Frisa, and set designs by renowned artist Es Devlin, this exhibition offers viewers an extensive display of garments and objects produced by Gucci from the dawn of its creation up to today, as well as an immersive experience through meticulous decoration, sound, installations, projected videos, and many more. In this review, I will be referring to the essay ‘Reviewing Fashion Exhibitions’ by Alexandra Palmer (2008), in order to inform and aid me in my writing. I will also be referring to a handful of different theories for a better understanding of the exhibition, the visual aspects, the curation, and the strengths and shortcomings of the aforementioned points.

The ‘Gucci Cosmos’ exhibition is a retrospective exhibit spanning across nine different sections consisting of twelve rooms in total, all of which have a logical flow in regard to the themes and design elements of the brand. All sections reference both the past and heritage of Gucci, as well as the present and future of the brand, with the first and second sections ‘The Ascending Room’ and ‘Portals’ largely focusing on the origins of the brand – founder Guccio Gucci’s early life as well as a history of the first ever store and iconic design elements. However, there is always a nod to the future, in keeping exhibition texts, captions, and layouts ambiguous and open to interpretation of the viewer. Similarly, the last two sections of the exhibition titled ‘Carousel’ and ‘Gucci Ancora’ celebrate the history of the brand by showcasing older as well as recent looks on a conveyer belt. However, there is also a celebration of the rebirth and future of the brand with the new creative director, Sabato de Sarno’s vision for Gucci. The coming years are always left obscure throughout the exhibition - the viewer’s job being to come up with their own conclusions and reflections - ‘when you say retrospective, you think about the past … whereas this is about continuing history,’ (Frisa in Pistachio, 2023).

Visitors are welcomed in the first part of ‘The Ascending Room’ – a replica of the Savoy Hotel waiting room. The waiting room contains an exhibition text explaining that this part of the exhibition serves the purpose of immersing viewers into the opulent atmosphere of the Savoy Hotel, where Guccio Gucci worked at eighteen as a porter, and where he got insider information on the lifestyles of his future clientele. The waiting room goes back to Guccio’s origins, having floorplans and photos of the Florence Cathedral, located in his hometown, as well as vintage photos of the Savoy hotel. While waiting, guests can also look through coffee table books about Es Devlin (the exhibition designer). Subsequently, guests are led to a replica of the Savoy elevator acting as a liminal space between the outside world and the world of Gucci – with the journey being narrated by a digital voice paraphrasing the contents of the exhibition text. Figures 1 and 2 show the ascending room, with the wallpaper in the waiting room channelling the Gucci Flora pattern, and the reds of the elevator being reminiscent of Sabato de Sarno’s signature red seen throughout his debut collection and recent Gucci store interiors.

After the elevator ride, atop a spiral staircase is the main exhibition text and manifesto of the exhibition, explaining the structure of the exhibition, as well as putting out a statement that the exhibition does not follow a linear chronology, but rather showcases a collection of themes and items which collectively transcend the idea of linearity, therefore bringing alternative and profound narratives to the table. This decision may partially pertain to the postmodern concept of the ‘end of history’, which explains that history can’t be linear seeing as many other numbers of histories have been suppressed or distorted in order to tell only the dominant narrative (Morgado, 1996, p.43), as well as being a curatorial approach that Frisa used in numerous other exhibition, and through this, the curator may suggest that the exhibition is a postmodern, ideal microcosm of society – and that the Gucci universe stretches wider than most people think it does.

Down the spiral staircase and through revolving doors is ‘Portals’, the second section of the exhibition consisting of three rooms. The first room is all about Guccio Gucci’s early life, the first Gucci store (opened in Rome in 1921), the bamboo handle which was introduced in 1947, and Gucci’s international celebrity clientele. In contains two dioramas seen in Figures 3 and 4, the first diorama (Figure 3) signifying ‘la dolce vita’ (“Portals”, 2023) is a celebration of public figures who travelled to Rome to shop at the inaugural retail establishment, with photos of different landmarks being projected onto the diorama. The second Diorama (Figure 4) is a celebration of the Gucci bamboo handle, and Princess Diana, who was frequently seen wearing bags with the bamboo handle (with Alessandro Michele’s Gucci re-releasing the bamboo handle bags, and naming them the ‘Diana Bag’, seen in Figure 5).

The second room of ‘Portals’ contains an installation of conveyer belts which carry three rows of different trunks and lifestyle-trunk-resembling items Gucci has released throughout the years. On the walls of the room is a digital screen showing names of cities and flight times, which change every few seconds. As a common theme throughout the whole of the exhibition, the bags are all arranged in a non-chronological, random order, with no explanation behind it. The labels don’t tell much other than a very brief description of the item and the year of making. The purpose of this installation is to show the relationship between the travelling lifestyle of the brand’s middle- and upper-class clientele and the brand itself creating items to cater to their lifestyles.

The third room is a corridor, with a brief timeline of the brand from 1921-2023. All the while being informative, it doesn’t provide the knowledge and facts needed to fully understand the exhibition, due to the concise nature of the captions, causing many important moments to be left out of the timeline. A plethora of information about the brand is left out, and it seems that only information relating to the exhibition is included in the timeline, which can be problematic since it might be a deceptive and misleading representation of the brand’s history – which is an antithesis to the retrospective nature of the exhibition, as outlined by the curator in the main exhibition text. That said, this could also have been a decision influenced by Frisa’s bold and risk-taking style of curation in order to ‘construct a different kind of discourse around fashion’ and ‘offer new points of observation’ (Frisa, 2008, p.172) to visitors about the history of Gucci.

‘Eden’ is the name of the third section of the exhibition. It is a celebration of the Gucci Flora print created by artist Vittorio Accornero de Testa in 1966 for a gift to Princess Grace of Monaco – then on the print has been used by the House ever since. The room is all white, as seen in Figure 6, with arches reminiscent of the Gothic style of the Florence Cathedral, decorated with oversized bugs and flowers – which are motifs of the print – hanging from the ceiling. The room contains various garments, objects and accessories made over the years by different creative directors. Personally, I found this room the most captivating for several reasons. The juxtaposition of modern and traditional items, united in using the same print was pleasing to observe; the room, even though containing a reasonable amount of decoration, was designed in a way that the decorations did not weigh down on the garments and objects, it was as if the adorned ceiling was merely a continuation of them; it was also interesting to witness Alessandro Michele’s creations seeing as his interpretations of the Flora print are arguably more innovative and interesting than others’. His use of the traditional print in modern clothing is captivating – such as defying gender norms in a postmodern context, as Barry and Reilly (2020, pp. 122-123)’s argument can support, saying that ‘androgyny during postmodernity focused on blending masculinity and femininity to create a gender-ambiguous aesthetic.’ This was done by Michele by blending traditionally female aesthetics (Flora print) with traditional menswear (suits for example).

The next two sections are titled ‘Zoetrope’ and ‘Two’ and are both similar conceptually and visually. The spaces shrink the audience – in ‘Zoetrope’ (Figures 7 and 8) we enter a life-sized zoetrope, and in ‘Two’ (Figures 9 and 10) we enter a room with two giant human sculptures laying sideways facing one another. Both rooms speak to the heritage and history of the brand, with ‘Zoetrope’ focusing on influences of equitation, and the Gucci Horsebit, while ‘Two’ focuses on different creative directors’ visions and interpretations of the classic female suit. The design choices for these rooms stray away from the fragmented manner of the exhibition curation, perhaps it was a creative choice to fully immerse the visitors into the exhibition. With the recurring theme of the future of the brand not being set in stone, the idea of submerging the visitors into the clockwork that is Gucci and its future might be at attempt for the visitors to feel important and have a sense of helping shape the future of the House. However, one problem with ‘Zoetrope’ is that it could be exclusionary to people who are sensitive to flashing lights, seeing as there is a sound and light installation of a moving horse and a sequence of words happening in the room every few minutes. Another drawback is that the design decision behind ‘Two’ is not articulated – with the exhibition text only explaining that the installation is inspired by the novel ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ – which has no connection to the House.

Just like in the paragraph above, ‘Archivio’ and ‘Cabinet of Wonders’ are rooms that, in my opinion, are connected. Both rooms talk to the audience through displayed archive pieces, and are both connected to history, the preservation of historical artifacts, and objects of the past. However, interestingly, the choice was made to keep the rooms less historical and more appearance-centric, seeing as the rooms are definitely very visually striking (‘Archivio’ seen in Figure 11, and ‘Cabinet of Wonders’ in Figure 12), but lack the historical context that perhaps would have made them more elucidated for exhibition visitors in the sense that ‘Archivio’ and ‘Cabinet of Wonders’ would make more historic sense to them and in turn, aid in increasing their knowledge about the brand.

In a ‘not following a linear chronology’ manner, both rooms, like all others, had no logical layout of objects and garments, with this being explained by the curator wanting the rooms to feel like a ‘maze’ (“Archivio”, 2023), where people find their own route and relationship with the archive and the cabinet of curiosities of the Gucci brand. While acknowledging that this is a classic Maria Luisa Frisa approach to curating fashion exhibitions, and that this is an innovative and novel perspective, these two rooms had the opportunity of being historically accurate, or at least have some contexts put into the organisation and layout of the garments, accessories, and objects.

Concerning the room designs, ‘Archivio’ was filled with mirrors and bright artificial lighting (seen in Figure 13), reminiscent of Es Devlin’s installations and stage designs. While being exceptionally visually compelling, this can cause issues of navigating the room, and it also felt that it slightly upstaged the objects that were behind glass cabinets and inside shelves. Additionally, labels and captions contained very little information about the objects, which is the case throughout the whole of the exhibition.

‘Cabinet of Wonders’ is a representation of a ‘beating heart of the Gucci Archive and of the House itself’ (“Cabinet of Wonders”, 2023) through showcasing a vast number of garments, objects and accessories kept in mechanical shelves which open and close every few seconds. As is the case with ‘Archivio’, the room and cabinet are very strong visual elements, while the objects that are displayed in them are hard to observe properly due to them being shown for only a few seconds at a time, and also, they are examples of objects which are seen all throughout the exhibition, so this poses questions of whether the ‘Cabinet of Wonders’ is relevant to the overall exhibition.

‘Carousel’ (Figure 14, 15) is the eighth section of the exhibition. It is a display of several looks, in a random order, which is there to show the DNA of the Gucci brand’s visual identity through garments. The looks are placed on a conveyer belt that spirals around the room, and are behind a mesh screen, on which an artwork created by eight illustrators is projected. While not having a considerable amount of meaning behind this room, it is a respectful nod to the recent past of Gucci and its numerous creative directors, all bringing their own visions but also paying homage to iconic House codes of Gucci as well as its heritage and history. This room also acts as a cohesive precursor to the next room.

The last section of the exhibition is ‘Gucci Ancora’ (Figure 16). Being all about the vision that the new creative director Sabato de Sarno has for the future of the brand, this room plays into the theme of keeping the future vague enough for the visitors to decide it for themselves. The room contains a box of screens which show videos of different animals, landmarks, and people, with inspirational quotes and poems playing in the background. There is also a sequence of interchangeable words on the walls, making the room interactive. The room is all red, referencing Sabato de Sarno’s Spring 2024 collection, and is reminiscent of the reds in the elevator of ‘The Ascending Room’. As well as being a smartly timed and placed promotion of the new vision of Gucci, this room is a pleasant finale for the exhibition, leaving visitors inspired and excited to see what the future of Sabato de Sarno’s Gucci will bring.

An important part of the broader curatorial thesis of Maria Luisa Frisa is to create ‘a dimension that is unconcerned with the chronology of history, but determined by the way that fashion bends and guides the forms of time’ (Frisa, 2008, p.177). This is well achieved in the universe of Gucci Cosmos – with the title itself being pertinent to Frisa’s vision, ‘Cosmos’ being a place where Gucci and fashion take over, with ‘time’ being in the background, and with Gucci being the only element that matters in this microcosm of an ideal society. Nonetheless, in my opinion, the biggest drawback of this exhibition is that it claims to be retrospective and historical, considering that they are showcasing items from all the 102 years that the House has been active, with the curator stating that no linear chronology will be followed. This creates a paradox which manifests practically everywhere throughout the exhibition. Steele (2008, p.18) talks about how exhibitions don’t have to be chronological but could follow the format of thematic groups – however, it is always hard to tell who decides what format to follow. Some rooms exhibited a greater degree of coherence and logical organization compared to others, and perhaps this wasn’t Maria Luisa Frisa’s decision to make.

All in all, the exhibition achieves its goal of demonstrating the work of the brand throughout the years, from its inception in 1921 up to today, and it is also a great promotional tool in tempting people to delve into the fantasy that is Gucci, by purchasing items from the brand. Maria Luisa Frisa’s curatorial vision combined with Es Devlin’s exhibition designs bring out the best in Gucci, showing the House’s finest work on par with opulent backgrounds to accompany the displays.  



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