Magistretti and Fontana pieces at Gucci’s new store in Dubai

Cool lights shot from above, austere materials: marble, laid in an optical geometry - a tribute to the great Italian architectural tradition - covers the walkable surface and is interrupted at times by large islands of yellow and acid green fabric, a hue almost exactly complementary to Gucci Ancora, the leading colour of Sabato de Sarno direction for the fashion house. Brushed steel elements design the morphology of the space.

The aim of this design is to create a detachment. After all, this now seems to be Gucci's proposition in any exhibition space, an exhibition approach that treats the garments of the collections just as one does the works in art galleries. So much so that it is precisely contemporary art that finds a home in this and all the brand's new boutiques. 

The works selected by Truls Blaasmo, bring together regional talents such as Chafa Ghaddar, Nasser Almulhim, Sami Hayek and Sarah Almehairi, alongside Italian and international artists such as Lucio Fontana, Alighiero Boetti, Richard Prince, Günther Förg and Flavie Audi. Thus the moccasin next to a Fontana canvas becomes a collector's piece.

The third protagonist, along with fashion and art, is clearly design, which is manifested, for example, in a re-edition of Vico Magistretti's Maralunga, covered in leather.

The involvement of both art and design was to be expected. Both materials are increasingly called upon to strengthen the identity of fashion houses and enrich the language of their collections (we saw this at the last Bottega Veneta show). Gucci has both the Design Ancora project to its credit, launched at the last Fuorisalone and involving the reinterpretation of some iconic works of Italian industrial tradition, and Gucci Cosmos, the exhibition conceived by British artist Es Devlin and curated by Maria Luisa Frisa to celebrate the history of the maison from its foundation in 1921 to the present day.