THE GG

Guccio Gucci’s initials were first used in the early Sixties – as either single or double Gs – as squared-off fastenings for bags which were developed and made in Gucci’s own forge at the Via delle Caldaie in Florence. Transferred soon after into a diamond-shaped pattern woven into the best-selling cotton canvas luggage, the GG monogram transported the company’s fame, quite literally, around the globe in the much-photographed company of movie-stars, aristocrats and socialites.

Reconfigured and deployed in innumerable designs and redesigns, the eternal GG has appeared and reappeared over time, merged into a circle, back-to-back, inverted, abstracted. It’s been done in silver and gold, burned into luxurious velvet, embossed into leather, stamped onto suede, printed on silks, woven into jacquards, patchworked together in luxurious crocodile and lizard. A status symbol that crosses cultures, it has acquired an elasticity of popular meaning that stretches its possibilities to include high glamour – and, when the moment arises, a knowing sense of humour.