Gucci\u2019s itinerant <\/span>Cosmos exhibition<\/span><\/a> touched down in London last week, but you can forget about phalanxes of dusty mannequins.<\/span><\/p>\n The show, conceived by British impresario Es Devlin\u2014whose credits include the Olympics, Sper Bowl, and Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s Renaissance tour\u2014and curated by eminent fashion historian Maria Luisa Frisa, rips up the rule book of the traditional fashion retrospective.<\/span><\/p>\n Gucci Cosmos, which celebrates the house\u2019s most famous designs, is all about generating emotion and using technology to do it\u2014from reinterpretations of simple visual trickery that inspired wonder in the time of house founder Guccio Gucci, to contemporary innovations that do the same for the 21st-century digital native.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s feeling that I want to evoke, and then I find the tech to evoke that feeling,\u201d Devlin told <\/span>Decrypt <\/span><\/i>during the exhibition\u2019s preview. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to recontextualize these famous pieces of Gucci history within the history of technology and civilization; the history of human relationships.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The 18 year-old Guccio Gucci worked as a bellboy in the elevator of London\u2019s Savoy Hotel. It was there, according to house legend, that he dreamed up the idea for the brand while spending hours ruminating over the swanky luggage belonging to the guests.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Visitors enter the Gucci Cosmos exhibition via a static reproduction of said elevator, which appears to travel up the Savoy\u2019s seven floors via video screens set behind two-way mirrors, giving the illusion of movement. The experience is accompanied by a soundtrack that tells the story. And although it\u2019s a simple device, it\u2019s an incredibly effective way to fire the imagination and transport visitors back in time.<\/span><\/p>\n Savoy founder Richard D\u2019Oyly Carte, who previously inaugurated the Gilbert & Sullivan opera company based out of the Savoy Theater, opened the hotel to give opera-goers a place to stay. Initially, the rooms at the top of the seven-story building were super cheap because patrons were disinclined to foot it up the stairs\u2014hence his introduction of an electric elevator.<\/span><\/p>\n It was a first for a British hotel in the late 19th century, and according to Devlin, \u201cpeople freaked out,\u201d needing brandy and smelling salts to recover. D\u2019Oyly Carte addressed the situation by painting it red and dubbing it \u201cThe Ascending Room.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe turned it into the first experiential marketing piece in 1899,\u201d she said, explaining that she developed her own immersive concept because she \u201cwanted to go from the gut,\u201d helping visitors \u201cto feel how the 18 year-old Gucci had felt.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fast forward to a modern-day innovation. The exhibition\u2019s \u201cTwo\u201d space features a pair of monumental, 33-foot-long horizontal \u201cblank canvas\u201d statues\u2014think the reclining Buddha in Bangkok\u2019s Wat Pho temple and you\u2019ll get the picture\u2014upon which suits by former Gucci creative directors Tom Ford, Frida Giannini, and Alessandro Michele are projected on a loop.<\/span><\/p>\n The digital renderings include Ford\u2019s 1996 red velvet design\u2014a first at the time in that it was intended to be worn by both men and women. It also includes a check suit by Giannini and floral unisex concoctions by Michele, one of which featured in his 2022 \u201cTwinsburg\u201d show that inspired the \u201cTwo\u201d concept. That show was modeled by 68 pairs of identical twins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Devlin described how the experience was created via projection mapping by digital outfit Disguise. The team Lidar-scanned the figures and adapted them into 3D using Rhino software, sculpting and casting the designs before they were rescanned and mapped back onto the figures.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMost people have Lidar on their iPhones now,\u201d she said of the laser-based scanning function. \u201cWe use it to take a photogram of a form.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Elsewhere, to bring to life Gucci\u2019s equestrian heritage (the house introduced its emblematic horsebit loafer in 1953), Devlin used a contemporary rework of a zoetrope.<\/span><\/p>\n The old-school animation device creates an illusion of motion via a sequence of images, displaying the consecutive phases that make up a particular movement. The immersive Cosmos \u201cZoetrope\u201d experience involves a circular room with screens playing footage of a galloping horse on repeat, set to a soundscape of hooves with a rhythmic voiceover.<\/span><\/p>\n The immersive Zoetrope experience at London\u2019s @Gucci<\/a> Cosmos exhibition which brings to life the equine inspo behind the house\u2019s signature horsebit loafers debuted in 1953. pic.twitter.com\/w3Fe38K3Bd<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Stephanie Hirschmiller (@stiffyhm) October 13, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Zoetrope you saw through a slot in Victorian conjuring tricks was the first precursor of moving image\u2014which is, of course, the precursor to the iPhones that we all hold in our hands,\u201d said Devlin, pointing out that \u201cmagic wears off on humans, so we\u2019re always looking for new magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That finally brings us to the immersive virtual experiences that now play out in the gaming universe. Gucci\u2019s <\/span>recent activations in Roblox and Zepeto<\/span><\/a> saw it translate new creative director Sabato de Sarno\u2019s Milan Fashion Week shot debut \u201cAncora\u201d for the platforms\u2019 Gen-Z audience, developing their incipient relationship with the house.<\/span><\/p>\n Devlin, who encountered the <\/span>metaverse<\/span><\/a> through the eyes of her 13-year-old son\u2014\u201che lived on Fortnite during the pandemic,\u201d she said\u2014views it as \u201canother way of framing the universe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:1536:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/gucci-cosmos-shelves.jpg@webp\")
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