The house of Gucci is no stranger to the flare of the flashbulb: from princesses and first ladies to Hollywood ingenues and soccer stars, the Italian brand's clothing and emblematic accessories have long been immortalised by the glare of the paparazzi.
Current creative director Demna, who made his name at Parisian label Vetements before a ten-year tenure at Balenciaga, has no qualms about courting such attention: the Georgian designer's debut collection for the house, revealed in a short film starring actress Demi Moore last September, heralded (in his words) a ‘bold, unapologetically sexy' era for Gucci. Meanwhile, his first runway show, held a season later in Milan last February, saw models – from It-girl Emily Ratajkowski to rappers Fakemink and Nettspend – traverse a vast, marble-clad runway in the type of spectacle that recalled the high-voltage shows of the house under Tom Ford, who was creative director from 1994-2004. It ended with perhaps the most memorable (and the most photographed) moment of the A/W 2026 season: Kate Moss in a backless dress that revealed a double-G thong, recalling a Ford-designed G-string first shown on the runway in 1997.
Gucci’s Paparazzo bag is ready for its close up
The ‘Generation Gucci’ campaign, featuring the Paparazzo bag
It is little surprise, then, that one of Demna's new handbags – part of a wider ‘Generation Gucci' capsule collection, revealed in December last year – is titled the ‘Paparazzo', a nod to the slouchy styles wielded by LA starlets in the 1990s and 2000s. Indeed, the handbag mines codes from the house's various eras, from the emblematic green and black webbing – introduced in the 1950s, it was designed to recall that found on saddle girths – to the metal horse bit, a perennial Gucci motif that has appeared on everything from loafers to the waistband of a pair of jeans.
Designed to be slung under the arm (Demna's Gucci has an insouciant, morning-after-the-night-before mood), it comes in two sizes: a roomy medium or a carry-all large, and in soft suede or leather iterations, as well as Gucci's symbolic double-G monogram canvas. Completed with a Made in Italy luggage tag and cross-body strap, it captures both Gucci's synonymy with functional elegance (the house began life as a Florentine leather and luggage workshop) and Demna's unabashed new vision. ‘I want Gucci to become an adjective,' he says.
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A version of this article appears in the July 2026 Design Directory Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 4 June in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today