Gucci has always been a fashion brand closely connected with art, the ideal medium to communicate values such as beauty and opulence. Current Gucci owner, François Pinault is among the greatest art collectors in the world after all. And now, even more than ever, art also features across Gucci’s fashion collections and advertising campaigns.
The art connection also rings true within the scenes of the recent movie House of Gucci. A 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott, with production design by Arthur Max.
But how accurate are the interiors in the movie’s glamorous scenes?
“Nowadays everyone [takes] a selfie and everyone is available. But, in the past, private life, especially in Italy, [was] more private,” the film’s set decorator Letizia Santucci told Architectural Digest. With few pictures of the Gucci family’s real homes available, Letizia and production designer Arthur Max, attempted to “deliver a message” through the sets instead of a perfect recreation.
For the furniture and works of art – Santucci sourced items from Robertaebasta, Gallery Ltwid, Michel Leo Milano, Rubelli, Lalique, Daum, and more to fill sets created at the iconic Cinecitta studios in Rome.
Villa Necchi Campiglio in the heart of Milan is Rodolfo Gucci’s dark Art Deco mansion, built in 1935 by architect Piero Portaluppi and later updated by Tomaso Buzzi. It is here that the films first nod to the art world features, at the start of the movie, when Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga) mistakes Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for a Picasso at her boyfriend’s Maurizio Gucci’s (Driver) father’s, Rodolfo Gucci’s house.
It is in Maurizio and Patrizia Gucci’s New York City ‘Pop Art’ apartment, that the artworks really sing. Paintings by Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg feature. ‘It was the epitome of late ’80s, early ’90s style, with plenty of white and chrome, lamps sourced from Fontana Arte‘ – set decorator Letizia Santucci told Architectural Digest about the apartment.
Now you have another reason to go and watch the movie – besides Gaga!
