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Gucci is the latest fashion house to help restore historic sites in Italy

On May 30, 2018, Gucci presented its Cruise 2019 show in the ancient Roman cemetery of Alysecamps, a millennia-old necropolis and a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the outskirts of Arles in the south of France.

For Gucci’s Cruise 2020 show on May 28 2019, Alessandro Michele has announced a venue of similar historical importance, Rome’s Capitoline Museums.

The museum, which dates back to 1471, is the oldest museum complex in the world, housing a world class curation of medieval and Renaissance art, ancient Roman statues, coins and jewellery.

Alongside the show, the Florentine brand, founded in 1921, has pledged a two-year commitment to the restoration of Rupe Tarpea (the Tarpeian Rock), a steep cliffside on the southern side of the Capitoline Hill which, up until the first century AD, was a site where traitors, murderers and larcenous slaves were hurled to their deaths.

Chunks of tufa (a porous rock) and clods of earth fell from the cliff face last summer in what city officials called “a mini-landslide” and it is in need of some attention.

Gucci has not divulged how much it will contribute, but the project will take a year and a half to complete. Paths around the cliff will be cleared and a new lighting system installed in what is being described as a “restyling” of the area.

The brand also supported a similar restoration in Florence. After holding its Cruise 2018 show at Florence’s Pitti Palace Palatina Gallery, Gucci donated $2.1 million towards the renovation of the Boboli Gardens just outside the gallery.

Gucci is the latest of several luxury brands to have restored heritage monuments, and mainly in Italy, which has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world, and is where many luxury fashion houses are based.

A Fendi fashion show at the Travi Fountain (Imaxtree)
A Fendi fashion show at the Travi Fountain (Imaxtree)

At Fendi’s couture show in summer 2016, models marched across a transparent runway over Rome’s Trevi Fountain, which had been freshly restored, thanks to the brand's generous €2.5million donation.

Earlier that summer, Tod's unveiled its first-phase restoration of the Colosseum, a five-year project that cost the brand over €25 million but led to the cleaning of the monument's archways and façades, and the renovation of over 10,150 square metres of space.

In 2015, Prada and Versace joined forces, each spending €1.5 million to restore the world’s oldest shopping mall, Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II. While in September 2016, Rome unveiled the completed restoration of the Spanish Steps, which was made possible due to Bulgari’s €1.5 million donation to Rome on the occasion of the 130th Anniversary of the Maison.

But it’s not just Italy that’s feeling the fashion-funded love. In February 2018, Karl Lagerfeld announced that Chanel would commit to spending 25 million on a project to restore and renovate the Grand Palais (starting in 2020).

In funding the restoration, maintenance and rehabilitation of artistic heritage, luxury fashion houses safeguard these historical landmarks for future generations to enjoy. Long may the marriage between fashion and the ancient world continue.