Musical icons raise a glass for Gucci’s 100^th birthday

To celebrate Gucci’s 100^th birthday, creative director Alessandro Michele decided against throwing a massive party. Instead, he teamed up with music data company Musixmatch to figure out how many times the fashion house’s name came up in song lyrics from 1921 to date, only to discover the word ​“Gucci” has been uttered by musicians around the world a staggering 22,705 times since then. Who’d have thought?

As a means of bridging the gap between some of these songs and the brand’s behemoth legacy, Michele transported us to his very own ​’70s style British music show, complete with a mustached talking head, for the new Gucci 100 campaign.

The collection, which was specially designed for the occasion, features quotes from songs that have name-dropped Gucci over the years, emblazoned across garments and accessories: Amy Winehouse’s Fuck Me Pumps (2003), The R (1988) by Eric B & Rakim and You Got Good Taste (1983) by The Cramps to name but a few.

The accompanying film, directed by Joshua Woods, is a trip in itself, paying psychedelic homage to musical icons such as Ella Fitzgerald, Fela Kuti, Alicia Bridges and Ice Cube, all of whom have been recreated by models wearing monogrammed suits, flares, denim jackets, velour everything and plenty of dodgy haircuts. From jazz to Japanese punk, disco, hip hop and Afrobeat, Michele has left no stone unturned in his celebration of the ties between music and fashion.

Want to see Gucci’s 100 centenary collection in the flesh? It will be on display at Circolo, Gucci’s new retail-cum-event space, spread over two floors of a David Adjaye-designed building in London’s Shoreditch. In addition to the musically inspired pieces, there’s a luscious plant filled cafe, a library stocked with an excellent edit of publications curated by David Owen of IDEA Books, and a music room filled with records selected by Gucci’s musician friends, Iggy Pop, Phoebe Bridgers and Miley Cyrus included. The experiential pop up will be there for the next few months, giving you time to fully immerse yourself in Gucci’s world.