In February 2026, for his debut runway show as creative director of Gucci, Georgian designer Demna created a monumental, marble-clad runway set evocative of a museum, populated with recreations of ancient sculpture (each had been 3D-scanned from original Roman and Hellenistic statuary, before being remodelled in plaster by Tuscan artisans). At the time, he said it was a recognition of Gucci’s looming status in Italian culture: a behemoth of style and craft, ‘a house that has lived many lives, a brand that has defined and redefined what luxury means’, he said in a letter on Instagram prior to the show.
‘Last year, I immersed myself in understanding the Gucciness of Gucci,’ he continued. ‘I went to the Uffizi museum to see Botticelli’s Primavera, the painting that inspired Gucci Flora. On my way, I encountered Botticelli’s other work, The Birth of Venus. I had known it from books, but never seen it in real life. Standing in front of it, I felt overwhelmed. The beauty in it was unconditional; it was absolute. When I returned and stepped into Piazza della Signoria, the first thing I saw was Palazzo Vecchio. In that instant, I understood the place Gucci holds within Italian culture. It has become clear to me what my mission here really is. Above the product, Gucci is culture, it is a way of thinking and a way of being.’
Revealed today (20 April), a new installation at Fuorisalone 2026 continues Demna’s veneration of Gucci as part of Italy’s cultural iconography with a series of 12 tapestries displayed in the Chiostri di San Simpliciano in Milan’s Brera neighbourhood. They begin with founder Guccio Gucci’s time at the Savoy Hotel in London in the late 1800s, where, while working as a bellboy, he realised the growing need for trunks and cases among the burgeoning travelling classes. He would return to his home city of Florence and found the eponymous house in 1921, opening a leather goods store and workshop on Via della Vigna Nuova, the foundation for what would become a global fashion empire.
Further scenes depict other moments in the Gucci story, from the creation of the ‘Bamboo 1947’ and ‘Jackie 1961’ bags (the latter takes its name from Jackie Kennedy Onassis, who popularised the handbag, which was originally called the ‘Fifties Constance’) to the subsequent tenures of Tom Ford, Frida Giannini and Sabato De Sarno, the creative directors who preceded Demna. Reminiscent of Renaissance tapestry, the various scenes are interrupted with idiosyncratic moments of modernity, like a leather gaming chair that sits in the background of a tableau featuring Demna perfecting a red coat from his debut S/S 2026 collection (the designer himself features in a baseball cap and leather biker jacket).
‘Each tapestry is articulated through shifts in composition, colour, and atmosphere, moving from mythologised origins to contemporary reinterpretation,’ the house said today in a statement. ‘Figures, symbols, and landscapes evolve across the sequence, constructing a visual language that mirrors Gucci’s ongoing transformation.’
Also in the cloisters, which were first constructed in the 15th century and are an example of early Renaissance architecture, is a garden inspired by Gucci’s Flora motif. Perhaps the house’s best-known print, the Flora design was created by illustrator Vittorio Accornero for Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco, after she visited the house’s flagship store in Milan in 1966 (the motif would adorn a silk scarf, which became a part of Kelly’s uniform). It features 43 different flowers and botanicals, inspired by Botticelli’s 1482 masterpiece Primavera (Allegory of Spring). For Fuorisalone, the Flora is reimagined as a field of seasonal wildflowers, including several of those that feature in the original design (corresponding with the installation, a series of limited-edition bags will also feature the Flora motif).
Elsewhere, in a typically Demna-esque flourish, is a series of Gucci-branded vending machines dispensing cans of soda inspired by ‘La Famiglia’, a series of Gucci archetypes he established in his first collection for the house (Demna, who was previously at Balenciaga, is known for an irreverent, often ironic, approach to fashion and luxury). ‘Different facets of Gucci’s personas’, he called the various figures at the time, which spanned ‘La Bomba’ (a glamazon in a tiger-striped ‘fur coat’), ‘La Principessa’ (clad in a sugary pink gown with ostrich-feather cuffs), alongside ‘La VIP’, ‘Nerd’, ‘Gallerista’ and ‘L’Influencer’.
In the vending machines, these archetypes are reimagined as a series of branded drinks, each created by Gucci Giardino, a café and cocktail bar owned by the house in Florence. Distributed randomly to guests at the installation, they include ‘Fashion Icon’, ‘Drama Queen’, ‘Super Incazzata’, and ‘Mega Pesantone’. After the exhibition concludes, the Gucci store on Via Montenapoleone will hand out floral bouquets taken from the Flora installation, ‘continuing the narrative through the reuse of its material elements’.
‘Gucci Memoria’ is open to the public from 21 to 26 April 2026 at the Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Piazza Paolo VI, 6, Milan. Registration is available on Gucci.com.