_{All merchandise featured on Vogue are independently chosen by our editors. Nevertheless, we could earn affiliate income on this text and fee if you purchase one thing.}

A Historical past of the Greatest Gucci Purses

In 1897, a person named Guccio Gucci left his native Florence for London, the place he labored on the tony Savoy Resort as a bellhop. Dealing with the baggage of the ritzy clientele there gave him the schooling he wanted to return to Italy and produce his very personal line of travel-centric leather-based items. The yr was 1921 when Guccio lastly opened the doorways to his boutique on Florence’s By way of della Vigna Nuova, promoting imported suitcases along with items handcrafted by native artisans. It didn’t take lengthy for patrons to latch onto Guccio’s wares, and shortly after that, Gucci turned an outright sensation.

The Greatest Gucci Purses to Store Now

A commerce embargo positioned on Italy throughout Mussolini’s rule meant that supplies—leather-based particularly—have been scarce. So, Guccio and his sons Aldo, Vasco, and Rodolfo (all now a part of the household enterprise) needed to get inventive, making wicker, raffia, and wooden Gucci signatures along with cuoio grasso, an extremely clean veal calf leather-based. (Close by, the Florentine Salvatore Ferragamo was additionally making do with what was accessible together with his cork-heel creations.) At across the identical time, Gucci additionally developed a woven hemp textile with a diamond sample, a precursor to the present double-G monogram.

Round 1947, Gucci made style historical past with its bamboo-handled bag, a structured little purse adorned with a bamboo deal with bent by the warmth of a flame. By 1953, Ingrid Bergman was carrying a variation within the movie Viaggio in Italia, setting off Hollywood’s love affair with Gucci. Reported guests to Gucci’s Florence store included then–Princess Elizabeth (earlier than her ascent to the British throne), Eleanor Roosevelt, and Elizabeth Taylor. A stint as an actor meant that Rodolfo would additionally usher in his personal picture-making mates like Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, and Sophia Loren.

By the Nineteen Fifties, when la dolce vita was in full swing in Rome, and Manhattan was a playground for monied movers and shakers, Gucci was outfitting and accessorizing all of it. Over the subsequent 20 years, Gucci opened up retailers nearly all over the place price being seen. Sooner or later, on the Milan outpost, Grace Kelly walked in and obtained a silk scarf adorned with a female floral sample (dubbed the Flora, which stays a home code to at the present time); on one other, Jackie Kennedy Onassis picked out a hobo bag. The latter was not too long ago reissued by Alessandro Michele, as have been the bamboo-handled Diana bag and the Gucci Attache bag. Michele was additionally accountable for the Dionysus and the Marmont—two baggage which have maintained their It bag standing years after their debuts. Time will inform what baggage (new and outdated!) will rise to the top-coveted spot as soon as incoming inventive director Sabato De Sarno helms the Gucci ship. Within the meantime, the tales behind all the most effective Gucci purses to buy proper now, beneath.

The Ophidia

When you love the unmissable GG print or the inexperienced and pink net print, these signature motifs are celebrated all through The Ophidia assortment. One of the best half about this line is its continued development yr after yr because it was launched throughout the Cruise 2018 season underneath Alessandro Michele’s management. Discover the hallmark touches on boxy totes, mini shoulder baggage, and a lot extra. For spring 2024, the Gucci model introduces a sturdy denim cloth that comes into two pastel shades; a peachy beige and a minty inexperienced.

The Chain Horsebit

Tom Ford infused new life into the model’s iconic horsebit motif by elongating the equestrian {hardware} and anchoring it on the flap of a clutch purse, in 2003. Twenty years later, the style home revived the early-aughts bag with a quilted silhouette and playful colorways that immediately grabbed the eye of fashion stars like Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, and Dakota Johnson.

Along with a number of L.O.V.E, Gucci’s Love Parade runway present was full of accent goodies. There’s the aforementioned Attache bag but in addition the Blondie—an understated leather-based flap bag with a detachable strap (there’s a glinty gold chain, a strip net trim, or a strapless possibility). There’s little embellishment or bedazzlement save for an eye catching Gucci brand that dates again to a brand filed in a patent by Gucci in 1971—the interlocking G-motif featured a pair of the letters with one inverted and flipped on its head. The Blondie represented yet one more cleverly fashionable homage cost by Gucci’s then-creative director Alessandro Michele to the historic home. The bag is proof that Blondies do certainly have extra enjoyable.

Because the legend goes, glinty horsebit {hardware} entered Gucci’s trendy oeuvre in 1953. It was Aldo Gucci—recognizing that buyers appreciated a facet of historical past with their purses—who perpetuated the parable that the Gucci household had as soon as been saddle-makers to the Aristocracy. Aldo leaned into the equine idea, and underneath his path, top-stitching harking back to that on saddles adorned purses; and inexperienced and pink stripes seen on girth straps turned a signature Gucci aspect, as did the Gucci horsebit. Aldo even went as far as to switch the bellhop—a nod to Guccio’s early job—within the Gucci crest with a knight in armor. For the reason that horsebit appeared on a purse in 1955, that elegant {hardware} has change into as recognizable as Chanel’s double Cs. Tom Ford, Alessandra Facchinetti, and Frida Giannini all included the horsebit into their designs, and present Gucci inventive director Alessandro Michele has given us the newest iteration. Introduced on the home’s cruise 2020 assortment, the reprised Gucci Horsebit 1955 bag is available in varied shapes (tote, satchel, shoulder bag), all unified by the immediately identifiable double-D rings. In any case, there’s no want for a Gucci brand when its signature {hardware} is current.

Just like the enduring attract of the lady it’s named after, The Jackie is a bag that may by no means exit of fashion. In 1961, Gucci launched a hobo-style bag that caught the attention of Jackie Kennedy, whose husband so famously cherished Gucci’s idler moccasins. It’s mentioned that upon seeing a paparazzi picture of Jackie Kennedy with the bag (then known as the Fifties Constance), the Gucci household swiftly christened it The Jackie. The basic hobo-shape noticed many iterations underneath Tom Ford and Frida Giannini, however its newest incarnation comes by means of Michele, who in 2021 gave us a spin on The Jackie with a bit extra construction, an adjustable strap, and a piston closure. Again in 2014, Giannini made Kate Moss the star of The Jackie Bag marketing campaign; now, Harry Kinds is ushering within the bag’s new period.