Gucci handbags are renowned for their quality and flawless design. Drawing on over one hundred years of tradition, the company [founded as a luggage manufacturer by businessman and artisan Guccio Gucci] the luxury label has successfully negotiated various epochs in the fashion industry and has now consolidated its position – alongside Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and a few other brands operation under the Kering and LMVH mantel – as the pre-eminent Italian fashion label.
With this reputation Gucci bags come with a price tag that may make the ‘average’ consumer blush. However, even in commercially challenging waters, the stock of luxury labels [and main players like Gucci particularly] has [so far] continued to rise.
The Eastern market continues to grow and, as aspirational shopping displaces many high street staples for younger customers, women’s bags remain an item too good not to want.
At Gucci, the look is unmistakable [although will take some explaining to the uninitiated]. What often goes unnoticed is the degree of adaptability that Gucci has always had to deal with and embrace.
From its earliest days, when sourcing quality leather through Europe was a challenge and Gucci needed to incorporate canvas and bamboo [that have now become iconic] to a period in the eighties when the company made but also bled money, to the inevitable infighting [and eventually murder – as documented in the recent House of Gucci movie] that brought the brand to its knees.
Regardless of the stakes and pitfalls Gucci has always [with a lot of help in the 2000s from a certain tom Ford and latterly from Kering] ridden the wave and made things happen. It’s this adaptability, excellent craftsmanship [a given, regardless of the era] and a penchant for the sombre and more unusual side of the style spectrum that makes the price worth paying.
Materials used in the crafting
Leather is a given in a Gucci product, but as mentioned above, , Gucci has incorporated other materials such as canvas and bamboo. These materials differentiate Gucci bags from the usual full-leather frontage of most other designer labels and also aid in accentuating colour and textural qualities that bring the consolidated elements and even the leather parts to life. It can make for a complicated but hermeneutic look, emanating class and conservatism but also an idiosyncrasy that is an acquired taste
Craftmanship
With a history of making travel baggage for Europe’s well-heeled globe-trotters, it’s assured that Gucci places construction at the very heart of its mission. This emphasis has even come full circle in recent years. While the eighties and nineties placed great emphasis on ostentatious imagery [and almost played Gucci out of the market], the infiltration of increasingly good fake goods has seen a re-emphasis amongst luxury labels on quality craftsmanship and materials and the kind of cut-with-a-knife angularity that the like of Gucci, Chanel and Prada do best.
Crossbody Bags
The Gucci Interlocked GG Crossbody Bag Black is a good place to start an examination of the Gucci mandate. Here the pebbled Saffiano leather imprint is the most ostentatious element of the piece. Otherwise, there is an austerity in the angular dynamics and an intentional simplicity in decoration: black and muted silver hardware including a tastefully sized GG label. You get a little for your £650, but Gucci’s point is more than aesthetic denial, but a point made to lesser, showier brands [and a challenge to all imitators].
The Gucci Interlocked GG Crossbody Bag Brown is variation on the same theme but one with markedly different outcomes. In fact, if you needed two bags, black and brown of such a theme would be this critics place to start: Crossbody Bags are great because they offer the practicality needed to transport your stuff around town without the cumbersome volume of a large tote. Yes, brown is a hard colour to pull off in that it can – more than black – pull other muted tones uncomfortably into its own murky orbit while playing dull against standout primary colours. Nevertheless, brown and tan are must-try colours for Gucci lovers: the Gucci trench coat is most revered in its tan or camel variant and goes well with a beige bag like the Ophidia.
The Gucci Interlocked GG Large Crossbody Bag in black is a more robust offering. Retailing around the £950 mark, the descriptors – on paper – match the smaller crossbody with the same pebbled effect and simple matching of leather and metal components. The added size also creates a more affirmative impression; it’s a bag that doesn’t emanate lightness or frivolity but instead promotes the kind of stern and imposing approach to personal style that Gucci advocates adore.
The brown variant is – on this occasion – a good way to balance off a powerful black wardrobe or to mute a more colourful [perhaps flower driven] summer setup. Either colour variation will suit the kind of heavy lux-and-layer effect so favoured by the Italian elite – trench coat or [faux] fur, sunglasses and long pleated dress or denim for lunch.
The Gucci Soho Disco Crossbody Bag Black with Tassel takes aim at a great night out with its no-nonsense frontage; the tassel the only concession to frivolity, while the Gucci Soho Disco Leather Wallet on Chain Crossbody Black may be diminutive but is the most serious bag in the club, with even the GG logo subdued by that all-black cover and a boxy but slim silhouette. Pricing at £1,000 is serious too, but if you want THE look, you’re not going to compromise.
Shoulder Bags
Shoulder bags are where the exotic and quasi-oriental elements of a refined Gucci bag really come to the fore. Gucci has relinquished some of its hold on sombre idiosyncrasy this season with azure and cobalt blue variants that are far from frivolous. But elsewhere all the stops are out in the Beige Ophidia snakeskin chain shoulder bag or tres’ chic in the Grey Calf Leather Silver Chain Mini Shoulder bag. More conservative bags abound in the Gucci collection, while prices tend to revolve around the £1,500 mark.
Tote Bags
The Gucci Soho Disco Tote both betrays and lives up to its pulsating, dance-like name. A tote is made for the shopping mall and not the nightclub due to its sheer size, and this one is no exception. Then again, you could argue that -despite its greater cubic capacity – this is the most relaxed-looking bag in a collection that otherwise plays it strait-laced. The price is nothing to laugh about, but then outlays of £1,500 or more are common in tote territory across the premium and luxury sector. Big, it seems, is always more.
Clutch Bags
Most of Gucci’s smaller crossbody and wallet-sized bags logically fall into the clutch category and, due to the often-antiquated nature of the design of Gucci bags [or more accurately, the slightly odd affect that Gucci promotes, a mixture of androgyny and antiquity] there’s frequently a sense of bag as primarily fulfilling the purpose of ornamentation.
As we’ve shown you, totes and shoulder bags can be in larger over the shoulder variants, but for prices starting around £700, you’ll do no wrong opting for a smaller bag [say the Gucci Soho Disco Leather Wallet on Chain or the more traditional Gucci horse bit 1955 small bag] and holding it, stiff armed as you stand stock still in dark glasses waiting for a taxi. You could even drop down to a belt bag, although the look is travel/casual-focused and tends to bring [too much] attention to the logo.
Going Gucci is a style decision that too many take too likely. These days, simply parading the logo isn’t good enough. Thankfully, since the 2000’s Gucci has not been about that at all, and now makes some of the most refined and interesting bags that your £1,000 can buy. But, worn properly, Gucci will also make you work for your money. Bags and clothes may not be ostentatious or brazenly colourful, and the brand hasn’t had outright sex-appeal since Tom Ford left the building. But Gucci create the kind of items that – when matched properly and given a little thought – can make you look like you’ve graduated from and transcended the style school where everyone else is still taking notes.