100 Years of Gucci: 1920’s This is my illustrated Vogue cover celebrating the birth of the luxury brand Gucci in the 1920’s. Back then, Gucci was primarily a brand that designed and produced equestrian equipment therefore, I saw it fit for this cover to represent those roots with an illustrated original Gucci brown leather saddle found on the Sotheby’s auction website. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden.
100 Years of Gucci: 1930’s During the 1930’s, luxury brand Gucci began designing and producing luxury travel goods and luggage. This was their first step towards becoming the designer fashion brand that we see in modern times today, hence my inclusion of flowers to present the growth of the company - flowers also have become a huge motif within Gucci’s more recent designs. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
In the 40’s, Gucci branched out from producing luggage into designing handbags, however, due to the war, materials were becoming scarce. This was then how the signature bamboo bag was born. Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana have all been photographed donning this iconic style, and it is still sold by the company today despite the brand no longer having material restrictions. The decaptiated head illustration I designed is a nod to Gucci’s 2018 Autumn/Winter runway where the world was shocked and amused by the artistic choice for the models to carry prosthetic copies of their own heads down the runway.
100 Years of Gucci: 1950’s My 50’s illustration was greatly inspired by #GucciShowtime, an advertising campaign inspired by great 50’s films such as Singing in the Rain. For the behind the scenes of this campaign, the models were photographed in costume in a smokey room with a monochrome filter - and I thought that this would stand out alongside another Gucci motif of snakes, so I paired the portrait with Gucci’s own designed milk snake and another golden snake to point towards the 1950’s golden years. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
100 Years of Gucci: 1960’s The 1960’s showed Gucci’s debut of the Flora scarf, designed by Grace Kelly, which has stayed today as a staple of Gucci’s heritage and one of their signature products. To present this key historical moment for the brand, I decided to merge it with a later advertising campaign that captured Gucci’s distinct flare for fantasy and fun - the 2017 Autumn/Winter campaign showed aliens and monsters and donned inspiration from TV programs and sci-fi films from the 60’s. I thought by combining these two elements, I was able to capture not only what the brand was up to during this decade, but also how this decade later inspired the company. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
100 Years of Gucci: 1970’s My idea behind the illustration representing the 1970’s was the iconic, outlandish Gucci glasses made popular during this era by Elton John. This cover design also includes photography by Allan Ballard - I thought using photography would emphasise the historical importance of these particular trends in pop culture that further influenced the brands next choices. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
100 Years of Gucci: 1980’s Having earlier seen the Gucci X Dapper Dan collaboration, I knew that there was no way I could represent Gucci in the 80’s without creating an illustration that referenced Dapper Dan and his amazing and colourful 80’s styles. I also chose to include two jackets from this collection within this piece, as I believe that they really conveyed the era well due to their eye-catching fabrics and over-exaggerated shapes. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
100 Years of Gucci: 1990’s Tom Ford’s scandalous entrance onto the scene influenced my design choices for this cover. His risqué advertisements for the brand always came under fire for their nudity and hyper-sexualised positions, however, they completely boosted the brand’s popularity during the 1990’s. For this piece, I illustrated a collage of mixed Tom Ford/Gucci adverts making sure that the entire image consisted of mainly bare skin to really express this ‘deliciously erotic’ decade. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
100 Years of Gucci: 2000’s For the 2000’s edition illustration, I used photo editing in order to capture the newly introduced digital age. The photographs I used were from the Autumn/Winter runway and campaign in 2002 where a new dark, gothic style had been displayed, completely contrasting the brands usual flamboyant tastes. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
100 Years of Gucci: 2010’s The 2010’s saw Gucci’s relaunch of their now incredibly popular beauty brand - Gucci Beauty. This campaign took social media by storm and Gucci was very well praised by the public during this time for their particularly inclusive campaign, which starred model Ellie Goldstein - who I have pictured subtly in the mirror as an ode to her work for the company during this time. Digital Illustration, 2021, by Isabel Madden
To further commemorate Gucci's 100th Birthday, I took inspiration from a recent campaign by Ignasi Monreal, where large murals had been painted on the sides of buildings in big cities to advertise artistic flare Gucci as a brand. For this feature in my project, I stripped my magazine covers down to just the illustration and edited them onto the sides of buildings to express how each of these pieces would look in a different context.
