History

Guccio Gucci opened his first shop in Florence in 1921, selling leather luggage and equestrian accessories to a clientele that was just beginning to discover the organised tourism of the grand hotel era. The business was built on the reputation of Florentine leather craftsmanship and on Gucci's own experience as a hotel worker in London, where he had observed the travelling habits of the wealthy at the Savoy. The bamboo handle (introduced in 1947 when Italian leather was scarce due to post-war sanctions), the double-G logo (introduced in the 1960s as a tribute to Guccio), and the red and green stripe derived from the saddlery tradition are among the visual elements that made Gucci identifiable across markets and decades.

The brand expanded internationally through the 1950s and 1960s, opening stores in New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo; its customers included Jacqueline Kennedy (whose association with the Jackie O bag gave one of the house's most famous designs its colloquial name), Audrey Hepburn, and Grace Kelly. After a troubled period in the 1980s and early 1990s — family conflicts, near-bankruptcy, the murder of Maurizio Gucci — the brand was revived under Tom Ford's creative direction from 1994, and became part of the French luxury conglomerate Kering in 1999. The Gucci Garden was established to anchor the brand's Florentine identity against the Paris-headquartered conglomerate context.

The Palazzo della Mercanzia was chosen as the museum location because of its historical role as the institutional home of Florentine merchant capitalism — the institution that Gucci's craft tradition had grown within. The building's interior retains its medieval ceiling paintings and heraldic decorations alongside the brand's display design.