Gucci Opens Magical Stationery Store In Milan With Opulent Pencils, Paper & More
Image via Gucci
Back then, being able to bring the good pencils to class was a luxury. Now, the new items to flex with are your Gucci colored pencils in your Gucci pencil case and scratched into your Gucci notebook. And instead of the bus, you’d be cruising to school via a monogrammed skateboard.
Filling in your foggy memories of childhood in a familiar yet surreal manner, Gucci’s latest lifestyle collection pays delightful homage to everyday objects from back in the day. To house all these keepsakes, the Italian fashion house has opened a temporary lifestyle store, called Gucci Cartoleria (Gucci Stationery), in Milan.
As you might have already guessed, this isn’t your regular stationery store—and it’s not just because of the branded pens, graphite pencils, leather pencil cases, notebooks (with Donald and Daisy Duck, because childhood), paperweights, plush elephants, poker sets, pajamas, and sleeping masks. The whimsical outlet is a childlike imagination materialized; think Alice in Wonderland, or the wand shop in Harry Potter sans the wands.
Gucci paper goods dangle from the ceiling as if flying, while a mechanized chess set appears to play itself. There’s even a mouse hole with lived-in, miniature Gucci fixtures, along with a playing card rug and a tiny bottle of wine.
“When I was a child, going to the stationery store and finding pencils, pens, notebooks, games, meant bringing a dream into my daily routine. They were fine, well-made objects that spoke of craftsmanship and that, though part of my everyday life, were able to give off a magical, mysterious and wonderful aura,” shared creative director Alessandro Michele in a statement. “For this reason, presenting the Gucci Lifestyle collection in Milan through the Gucci Cartoleria is a sort of consecration, a tribute that was right for me to pay. So, I imagined a small cabinet of curiosities, a Wunderkammer, like the cave of Ali Baba, that could accommodate these everyday objects and return them to a fairytale dimension.”
Michele noted that he had always wanted to work on this concept, but the items “were not strictly related to clothing and accessories.” Gucci Cartoleria is his attempt to “restore to everyday life that sense of wonder that makes them so dear to me.”
A modern touch is the proprietary plant-based and renewable ‘Demetra’ textile applied to some of the products, keeping them free of animal byproducts.
Instead of the first day of school, Gucci Cartoleria will stay in its venue through Milan Design Week, and the collection will finally be ready globally and online from September 10.
[via Wallpaper*, i-D, Bagaholic Boy, images via various sources]
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