Gucci returned to its birthplace with a Cruise collection.
Gucci traced its story back to Florence on Wednesday evening, staging the Cruise 2026 show inside Palazzo Settimanni, the 15th-century building that houses the brand’s archive.
Founded in the city in 1921, the house treated that archive like a working laboratory, proving that every future look begins with a past memory. The runway itself hopped across decades. Silk brocades rubbed shoulders with lacquer-bright velvets, while lace arrived spliced, layered and dusted with strass—Florence’s textile lineage brought to life.
Silhouettes balanced drama and line: shoulders cut broad and confident, bodies drawn long so a jacket slipped from daylight to midnight. The GG motif threaded through belt buckles, inlays and stiletto heels, with a solo G logo flashing on hardware.
Leather, Gucci’s first language, spoke in two dialects. Faithful recreations from the archive appeared beside relaxed newcomers such as the half-Horsebit and a vanity-style companion. The Giglio bag—named after the lily that has symbolized Florence since medieval times—will reach stores the moment the lights come up.
Jewellery stepped forward in Monili, shaped with Milanese jeweller Pomellato. Borrowed from a 1984 Pomellato drawing, the set combines leather, gold and pavé diamonds in a necklace and minaudière.
There was no conventional finale. Models filed straight into the piazza, folding the collection back into the city that raised it. Gucci is Florence, Florence is Gucci—the conversation continues.
