Gucci bamboo handbag: when bamboo is a high-quality fashion material

Looking through a series of handbags from high-end fashion houses, you will notice that most of them use two main materials: leather and canvas, with hardware parts being metal or plastic. casting. However, at the Gucci fashion house, there is another material: Bamboo (bamboo). This material hardly appears in other fashion houses.

Gucci bamboo handbag: when bamboo is a high-quality fashion material

Throughout Gucci’s history, a handbag with a bamboo handle is continuously reborn. The latest version is the Gucci Bamboo 1947 model, just released in 2022. Why is this idyllic bamboo material so favored by Gucci? Let’s learn about the classic handbag design of the Italian fashion house with Harper’s Bazaar.

In Europe, World War II ended in 1945, materials were scarce, making the fashion house not have enough cowhide to make custom leather handbags. Faced with this situation, the founder of Guccio Gucci had to flexibly find replacement materials.

For some models, the body of the bag is made of canvas with a diamond pattern, helping Gucci protect the design copyright. This filling pattern was later combined with the GG logo, becoming Gucci’s famous logomania style GG Canvas .

For some other bag models, instead of cow/calf leather, Mr. Guccio Gucci experimented with tanned pig skin. The handle is made from a material never before seen in the world of high-end handbag design: Bamboo. Bamboo is a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-find material, imported from Japan. Bamboo body is durable and light, can replace leather strap.

The first Gucci Bamboo handbag model was born in 1947 with a body made of pigskin and a curved bamboo handle. The bag blew a breath of fresh air into the luxury fashion industry and instantly became a Gucci design classic. The image of exotic bamboo straps is very relevant to the post-war era, when people dreamed of traveling to new and unfamiliar horizons.

In the 1950s, there was no concept of It bag – an easily identifiable bag that everyone wished to own. Now, looking back, we have to confirm that the Gucci Bamboo was the It bag of that era.

In the 1950s, the Gucci Bamboo handbag appeared in the hands of the most influential women in society such as Elizabeth Taylor or Ingrid Bergman. It was used as a prop for films such as Journey to Italy (1954), A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) or Blow Up (1966).

Because the Bamboo handbag is so loved, Gucci continues to produce it, even when the shortage of materials is gone. In 1958, the company successfully registered a patent and copyright for the design.

Building on the success of Gucci Bamboo, Gucci also launched a series of other designs based on bamboo. These include glasses, stiletto heels or bracelets that are molded to simulate the image of bamboo. Besides, the company also has the Gucci Bamboo fragrance line!

The special feature of the Gucci bag is that the bag strap is made of a seamless bamboo body.

First, the most perfect bamboo stalk will be selected. It is heated over a fire to soften, then bent into a semicircle. To highlight the original color of the bamboo stem, Gucci artisans will only varnish the bag handle. Finally, it is heat-treated to create a shiny, golden color. Also because of this processing, no other bag is the same.

Today, Gucci’s bamboo handles are still made by hand at the company’s workshop on the outskirts of Florence, Italy.

The original version of the Gucci Bamboo handbag has a trapezoidal body, bamboo handles, and a folding flap with a swivel buckle.

Before the acceptance of the Bamboo line, Gucci also applied bamboo straps to other body styles. Among them, the most famous is the Gucci Bamboo Handle Tote tote bag produced in 1991 because it is a favorite design of Princess Diana. That tote bag model is now reborn under a new name, Gucci Diana .

When Alessandro Michele came to be creative director, he designed a new version called Gucci Bamboo 1947. Continued as a flap bag, but round shape, buckle is also made from burning bamboo to match. with handle. The twist is this: Alessandro Michele’s design is closer to the 1960s and 1970s bag models than to the original version, despite being named…1947!

It is no exaggeration to say that, if you want to find a handbag that both possesses the maximalism of Gucci, is timeless and is not afraid of going out of style, choose the Gucci Bamboo.