Flora, one of the most loved Gucci icons,
was born as a special commission for Princess Grace of Monaco in 1966.
The princess had paid a visit to the Gucci store in Milan with Prince Ranier. Having bought a
green “bamboo bag” Rodolfo Gucci insisted she selected a gift. When she finally
relented to his request she asked for a scarf. Rodolfo was distressed: he felt
Gucci lacked one special enough for his distinguished guest. He immediately
contacted the renowned illustrator Vittorio Accornero, to design the most
beautiful floral scarf he could create. The next day Accornero returned with
his painting: it was the “Flora”, a multicolored flowered template that was
destined for an unimaginably extended future.
Flora
Over the years, Flora kindled such
long-lasting affection among European women that they passed it onto
their
daughters. One was Princess Caroline of Monaco,
who wore a blouse in her “mother’s” scarf-print as a teenager; another,
the
much younger Frida Giannini, whose own mother loved the print as a girl
in Rome. Re-connecting with
that desirable emotion, Giannini’s revived Flora on printed canvas bags
for
summer 2005 was met with overwhelming demand. Other Flora variations,
re-scaled, re-colored and abstracted, made it onto Forties/Seventies
inspired print
dresses for summer 2006, into jewellery and on evening bags. They were
all
hits: living proof of the power of a Gucci icon 40 years after it was
first
imagined.
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