In Gucci's workshop

Let's discover together all the secrets behind the brand's iconic products

There must be a reason why all great fashion houses come to Italy to have their items made. And the reason is simple: the quality of materials used and, above all, the versatility, skill and brains of the artisans who make them, they are truly unbeatable. Gucci, in the person of creative director Frida Giannini, has greatly focused on the brand’s cultural and historical heritage, on the savoir fair of thousands of artisans who still work for the Florentine fashion house. One’s first tour of the Gucci headquarters in Casellina, in the outskirts of Florence, can be described as an amazing experience. The headquarters is very much watched over and protected, you can actually feel the “secrets” cut and sewn into runaway creations oozing out of every corner.

Produzione Gucci

You get in with separate badges according to the various areas. Over one thousand people work at the factory on the production of bags, shoes and limited edition leather goods. Some production stages are carried out by a network of suppliers, strictly Italian small and medium-sized businesses, which work nearly exclusively for Gucci. The tour of the various departments, enveloped in a hushed atmosphere, is a journey through traditional Italian craftsmanship. The research and development rooms are filled with materials of all kinds: from python, crocodile, ostrich and anaconda skins to rolls of Diamante print fabric or featuring Gucci’s signature stirrups. The evaluation of the skins is an artisan-like process, meticulously accomplished. Gucci is very attentive to skin treatment, to prevent toxic chemicals from getting into the product, as it used to be some years ago because of chrome tanning. Just steps away is the cutting department.

Produzione Gucci

Ten to fifteen workers line the skins up per type and color and then cut them with surgical precision to avoid waste and enhance each skin’s qualities. Only a highly-skilled hand and trained eye can achieve what the creative director and her team had in mind. Some of the artisans still remember the birth, in the troubled postwar period, of the famous bamboo handle. Which, of course, comes from China, but only the roots coming out of the ground are cut in order not to cause harm to the forest. The bamboo branch is browned and then bent, polished and fired to transform it into a handle. Then comes the assembly department, the place where the magic is performed: all pieces come together in one.

Produzione Gucci

The Casellina headquarters also takes care of the so-called Top Clients orders: highly customized accessories for special customers. However, this perfectly oiled machine wouldn’t function- nor would it exist- without her, Frida Giannini, the embodiment of the new career woman style, the creative director of all things Gucci-labelled, “born” in the factory and destined for a brilliant future at the most luxurious of luxury brands. As further evidence of how firmly planted roots ( imitating Gucci’s 90-year history is no easy task!), commitment, vision and knowledge of the markets and of what is going on in the world are always rewarded with success.