Gucci releases a special collection for Chinese New Year
Gucci is approaching Chinese New Year celebrations — which begin on Feb. 16 — by releasing a capsule collection dedicated to the year of the dog.
Made of 63 items, the lineup focuses on an illustration of the brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele‘s two Boston Terriers, named Bosco and Orso. The illustrations are a replica of the ones featured on a pillow gifted to Michele by artist Helen Downie, better known as Unskilled Worker. The partnership between the designer and the British artist dates back to 2015, when Michele discovered Downie’s work on Instagram and invited her to take part in an art exhibition in Shanghai’s Minsheng Art Museum. The relationship was then cemented in October, when Gucci teamed with the artist on a capsule collection featuring her illustrations.
Reprising Unskilled Worker’s dog design, the new collection includes women’s and men’s ready-to-wear items, shoes, handbags, luggage, small leather goods and accessories.
Standout pieces are women’s brightly colored knitted sweaters and denim jackets and men’s polo shirts, hoodies and bomber jackets, all embellished with the dog motifs. These also dominate backpacks and tote bags crafted in Gucci’s signature logoed Supreme fabric, in addition to colorful leather clutch bags, wallets, scarves, trainers and jewelry.
Currently available in all markets, both in Gucci stores and on the brand’s e-commerce — including the recently launched online store in China — the capsule collection will be further promoted across the house’s digital channels and with dedicated marketing initiatives.
The fashion house tapped photographer Petra Collins and models Ellia Sophia Coggins, Unia Pakhomova, Gao Jie, Dylan Xue, Tex Santos-Shaw, Xie Chenglin, Eun Sang and Ruoyang He to wear the collection. Rich interiors, flowery gardens and different dog breeds complement the products in the editorial.
In store, windows will be redesigned with tartan walls, floor and matching tartan upholstered mini-bench seats to display the items, along with a big image of each dog on the rear wall. A special packaging has also been developed.
Digital promotion will be boosted through a special interactive content reserved to iPhone X users and available on the Gucci App. The feature enables users to animate the Orso and Bosco dogs through a special face recognition technology and to record a video that can be shared from the app.
