Frida Giannini - Designer

[Joromana]

Oh definitely! Lord, Frida is a MILLION times better than MGC. Frankly, Frida is also a MILLION times better than Michele.

LOL! That's funny, tell another!

 

[Lax89]

I liked what she did for Gucci. Every season was different but still it remained luxe. And we cannot deny that Gucci was one important show during the fashion month circuit

 

[Lola701]

^^
Gucci was important because of what was accomplished pre-Frida and because it was the cash cow of Kering.
Yes, it was a commercial success but the large part of her tenure, we can’t really say that her work was celebrated.
She was great for the Redcarpet and accessories tho.
Her FW08 was very influential. I give her that!

The reactions after Michele’s first collection were kind of telling. A lot of people couldn’t wait for her to leave Gucci.

 

[DK92]

Yesterday I dreamed that she had been hired for Lanvin... I hope this is an omen, she has always had that touch of luxury that I think fashion need and it would be a match with Lanvin which has always had that in brand's DNA!

 

[Drusilla_]

yeah, Gucci remained important during her tenure not because it was relevant or influential or interesting the way it was during the Tom Ford years, but because it was a major brand - which Tom succeeded in making it. She held the fort well but it wasn't one of the shows that everyone was itching to see the way they did for some others.

 

[Phuel]

Yesterday I dreamed that she had been hired for Lanvin... I hope this is an omen, she has always had that touch of luxury that I think fashion need and it would be a match with Lanvin which has always had that in brand's DNA!

LOL

She absolutely understood an accessible luxe— not sure about luxury as there was always a sheen of bourgeois decadence to her sensibility. Frankly, Frida’s Gucci wasn’t interesting or creatively-innovative ion the level that Tom’s was; not in it’s offering of designs nor its shows and campaigns, but she knew how to offer desirable separates. And unfortunately during her time, it was a sensibility that was overdone and overripe so she never stood out. In retrospect, of course her offering remains solid staples. If she were to make a (deserved) comeback, she would need to work on re-establishing a directional silhouette for her brand of bourgeoise— of which seems a good time to see a return of in these days of ugly fashion just for the sake of desperation for anything new.

Highly recommend for her to take a page or ten, from Hedi’s Celine in terms of branding. No need to reinvent the wheel— just double-0down on the bourgeoisie decadence in these outlet days. And Lanvin would be an absolutely ideal match.

 

[matheus_s]

what is she's doing nowadays? Just relaxing somewhere and cooking for friends in courchevel?

 

[Nimsay]

Frida was good for Accessories. Im pretty sure she engineered all Toms biggest bags and continued that. They just reissued her Bamboo Clutch. Her Gucci was actually pretty similar to Ancora IIRC.

 

[Frederic01]

Frida Giannini’s New Book on Her Rock Icons​

The former Gucci creative director has penned “A Journey Into the Style and Music of My Icons Since 1969.”
By LUISA ZARGANI | NOVEMBER 14, 2023, 12:01AM



MILAN — While not an autobiography in the classic sense of the word, there is a lot of Frida Giannini in the new Rizzoli book “A Journey Into the Style and Music of My Icons Since 1969.”

“This is a very personal project on which I worked for the past two years, but I always wanted to write about the influence of music on fashion, since I was at the Accademia [di Costume e Moda in Rome] as my thesis,” Giannini told WWD ahead of her trip to New York, where she will unveil the book at the Rizzoli store on Tuesday.

“This is a book on my great passions, fashion, music and art,” explained Giannini, who was Gucci’s creative director for a decade until 2015. Before that, from 1994 to 2001, she worked at Fendi, first as a ready-to-wear designer and then in charge of accessories.



For the book, for the first time, the designer drew portraits of her idols and muses, from David Bowie, Diana Ross and Eric Clapton to Tina Turner, Grace Jones, Aretha Franklin and Mick Jagger, to name a few, shown in the last pages of the 240-page tome. The Icons portraits will be auctioned and proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit organization To.Get.There, whose work is aimed at protecting orphans and children affected by HIV in Uganda and South Sudan.

Bowie, in particular, has been a key influence in Giannini’s life. She refers fondly to her late uncle Daniele Vellani, a drummer and DJ in the 1970s and 1980s, who instilled in Giannini a love of music. She reckons she now has 8,500 music LPs, many inherited from her uncle. Vellani turned her into a fan of David Bowie when she was a child and, over the years, she went on to become a collector of Bowie records, books, and photos from around the world. “My dream was to be a rock star but my voice is terrible,” Giannini said with a chuckle.



The idea of the book came from Vellani’s close friend, music producer and DJ Corrado Rizza, who wanted to interview Giannini on anecdotes about Bowie.

Giannini was so fascinated by Bowie that when he died in 2016 she received countless messages and phone calls of condolences, “as if he were a close relative of mine. For me it was truly a day of mourning,” she recalled.

The book allows Giannini to run through the history of music from 1969 to today, from Joan Baez and Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain, Madonna and Lady Gaga, among some, as an interpretation of fashion and society. She chose 1969 as the starting point, the “Big Bang” of music, citing the Woodstock festival, “Space Oddity,” Bowie and the first crewed mission to land on the Moon that year.

“In those days, in 1969, it was a time of total revolution in style, mental freedom, and Bowie was an example of all this, to the extent that we all remember the jumpsuits, the turquoise suits with bell bottoms, his fitted jacket with a striped tie, and his red hair, short in the front and long at the back. There’s also the Yamamoto period, which was the only collaboration he did, the first and last.

“For my thesis at the Academy, I talked about David Bowie the whole time, and I said that for me he set an example, because he invented and created his own look. At a certain point he found Yamamoto to be an interesting partner, but I’m sure it was a mutual collaboration. I’m sure that David designed what he wanted together with Yamamoto. In one biography I learned that his famous Lurex jumpsuit became iconic because before going on stage he cut one of the legs.”

In 2013, Gucci partnered with London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on the “David Bowie is” exhibition, shining a light on the style of the musician, whose imaginative guises — from Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke to Aladdin Sane — provided inspiration for designers.

Giannini herself designed a collection called “Glam Rock” for Gucci that was inspired by Bowie, which included a two-piece blue suit with boots and platform heels and a tie, the outfits with diagonal stripes. She described him as “both chic and extreme” and “incredibly ingenious. And there isn’t a single one of David Bowie’s looks that we don’t all remember. Not just in the imagination of a creative person who is also inspired by his work. But there’s no comparison. I love all kinds of music. I’ve never been a snob when it comes to music.”

The V&A show comprised more than 300 objects, including handwritten lyrics and set lists, original costumes, photographs, diary entries and musical scores.

Unfortunately, Giannini never had the opportunity to personally meet Bowie, although she met many musicians over the years, connecting them to Gucci, from Madonna to Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. With the latter and Salma Hayek Pinault, the designer staged a concert at London’s Twickenham Stadium in 2013 for Chime for Change, rolling out acts including Jennifer Lopez, Florence and the Machine, Ellie Goulding, and John Legend, to name a few.

In one of the photos in the book, Giannini is seen with Mick Jagger and she writes, “I had my hand over my heart because I thought I’d have a heart attack. There are legends that will always be legends.”

Giannini’s personal history unfolds through the pages together with the different music movements and the evolution of clothes, hairstyles and society. The chapters range from “Revolutionary Women,” with Carole King cited as an inspiration to become involved in human rights and organize the Chime for Change concert in 2013, to “From Soft Rock to Metal,” with Guns N’ Roses, led by Axl Rose.

“He laid down the law on the matter of trends (their crown of thorns is probably one of the most merchandised logos ever, along with Mick Jagger’s tongue) and looks: who can forget his blond hair and pirate bandana, a baseball cap worn backward, as well as Scottish or leather kilts, combat boots or Dr. Martens?” writes Giannini, recalling his “crazy relationship” with supermodel Stephanie Seymour.

Among some of the examples of influential looks, she cites Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, with their “eccentric style verging on kitsch”; The Cars’ Ric Ocasek, who “always wore a black jacket, thin tie and bangs stuck to his forehead”; David Byrne of Talking Heads, “with his Elvis Presley pompadour hairstyle and one eye on British dandy style,” and Sting, Patti Smith and Lou Reed wearing “mariner” striped shirts. Madonna of course was a key inspiration for Giannini herself, whose first movie she saw as a teenager was “Desperately Seeking Susan,” and who at 15 dyed her hair and wore lace gloves and leggings to imitate the artist in the “Like a Virgin” video.

The heir to Bowie as far as chameleon-like transformations? Lady Gaga, Giannini said without a doubt.

The designer combed through hundreds of photos and she underscored she wanted to run “unusual and special” images, to avoid that déja-vu feeling, and that would relate to specific and key moments in history, including Muhammad Alì standing over Sonny Liston in Lewiston in 1965 or an impressive aerial view of the Woodstock music and art fair in 1969.

Giannini continues to consult with fashion brands but has also become a majority shareholder in a bistrot and in a travel agency in Rome, creating the interior design for the locations.

WWD

 

[DK92]

I felt like a Rihanna fan now, I was hoping for an album and received makeup... As an admirer of Frida's work I expected an announcement from a new brand or her being hired, but I received a book!

 

[disco54]

No offense but who really gives a sh!t about her rock icons, Her tenure at Gucci was very lack lustre and who could forget those hideous"Frida" pants ie her take on Jodhpurs. She only had 2 stellar collections during her tenure, her Fall 2006 Glam Rock collection and her Fall 2011 40s by way of 70s Paris Vogue collection thats it. That being said she is still far, far better than clown Sabato and his basic b!tch clothes

 

[Jungla_Juana]

This is so random.. seeing her collections I would have never have pegged her for a rock/ Bowie aficionado. I can't see any rock icon style inspiration in what she did for Gucci whatsoever. Fall 2006 gives me more Disco vibes / Studio 54... no?
I guess I was never a fan of Frida's Gucci. There were some great standalone pieces here and there (I know I coveted the fringe babushka booties from Fall 2008 for a hot minute), but I found her work quite mid.

 

[susseinmcswanny]

? I can see an element of rock in most of her collections and campaigns. I guess you can look at her work through different lenses but I definitely felt it. Just ex. the fall 2008 runway was very rock, and fall 2009 had a very bowie look, and that campaign was so rock n roll. Maybe because during my formative years Gucci was run by her and not Tom Ford, I feel very much connected to her. The rich b*tch Gucci vibe is definitely there but I see a clear rock undertone to most of what she did

 

[Lola701]

How random…
But the project makes sense…For those who cares enough about her POV in the question.
Indeed there was always some kind of music influence in her work. I think of the rockabilly collections for spring 2008, even the Russian fall 2008 collection had some kind of Devendra Banhart thing into it.

Her 2009 collections looked extra high street but indeed, Fall 2009 was quite Blondie-ish for me.

Undeniably, her best work for Gucci wasn’t inspired by music even if we can create some kind of link with the glamour of her 2010’s collections and Diana Ross.

I’m curious to know which brands she is consulting for…

 

[Drusilla_]

I can see the music connection with Hedi (who actively promoted bands during his time at DH) but her?