Gucci #GucciDiana Fall 2021 Ad Campaign

Review of ‘#GucciDiana’ Fall 2021 Ad Campaign by Creative Director Christopher Simmonds, Photographer/Director Angelo Pennetta, and Director Max Siedentopf

Gucci celebrates timeless style and personal reinvention with a new campaign by creative director Christopher Simmonds. The #GucciDiana Fall 2021 campaign also features photography and direction by Angelo Pennetta, with video direction by Max Siedentopf.

The campaign highlights the Diana bag, a bamboo handle tote first presented by the house in 1991, which creative director Alessandro Michele has freshly reimagined with removable, neon leather belts – a nod to the functional bands that once came with the original bag to maintain the shape of the handles.

The imagery delicately develops this balance of historical style and contemporary practicality. Pennetta’s photographs channel the spirit of the early days of the paparazzi phenomenon, capturing candid action shots of glamorous personae as they transition between different parts of their day.

The scenes are captured outside the Savoy Hotel in London, where the house’s founder Guccio Gucci worked as a liftboy in his youth. From sweaters and day dresses to suits and evening gowns, the strong styling does great work to emphasize the practical versatility of the Diana.

The house also shared an exciting look at the artisanal manufacturing process behind the bag in the form of a stop-motion short film. Painstaking to produce but delightful for the senses – much like the bag itself – the whimsicality of the film and its soundtrack belie the hard work that went into making it.

At once reflecting fluidity and transformation, but also timelessness, the campaign is an excellent encapsulation of the spirit of the Diana – as well as that of Gucci as a whole.