Gucci Revives The Flora Through a New Project Celebrating Silk Scarves | Vogue Arabia

“Florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” This line from The Devil Wears Prada may have been laced with sarcasm, but The Flora print certainly broke fertile ground for Gucci when it was custom-made for Monaco’s Princess Grace in the '60s. Featuring a whimsical assortment of wildflowers, berries and insects, the Flora became the most famous scarf in the fashion house’s history, inspiring fragrance bottles, handbags and ready-to-wear for years to come.

This month, Gucci is returning to the origins of this legacy print, while reintroducing silks as a main category. Actress Julia Garner stars in the campaign, captured by photographer Steven Meisel, and a new book, Gucci: The Art of Silk will release in May, in collaboration with Assouline.

The brand will also debut its 90 x 90 project – a name that reflects the dimensions, in centimetres, of the silk scarf. Nine international artists have collaborated to reinterpret iconic themes rooted in five themes from the brand's archive, paying homage to its heritage. In addition to The Flora, Nautical Motifs, Animalia Prints, GG Monogram and Equestrian Influences make up the key scarf themes of the creative collaboration:

“I have such respect for Gucci’s history, and it was important to me to retain this sense of elegance while also including some of the playful aspects of my practice,” says Australian artist Jonny Niesche (his interpretation of The Flora is pictured below) in the forthcoming tome from Assouline. “It was exciting to think about how the scarves would add to this sense of relationship and interaction, knowing that different people would wear a scarf folded, tied, and so on,” he continues. "It is an interesting proposition for an artist, another form of collaboration with the person who is wearing it. The wearer is participating in the way the work functions, in how it appears.”

Gucci: The Art of Silk features The Flora on the cover and spans 300 pages featuring exclusive images from Gucci's archive. “Approaching a fashion archive is, first and foremost, a tireless exercise in observation and interpretation," reads a passage from the book. "In the case of a scarf archive, it's also like opening a storybook...”

The limited-edition 90 x 90 scarves are now available in the UAE at Gucci flagship stores in Dubai Mall and Mall of The Emirates.