To some of you who were mildly/semi interested in the trip to New York courtesy of Gucci and those who were dismayed at my confounded week of tech-mistakes, I am trying to make up for it now that I'm back online (emergency trip to PC World yesterday...) so you may either skip if you're not interested or read along for the Gucci ride.
I'll be brutally honest and say that when Gucci first approached me about participating in this trip and attending the event etc, I had to question whether me posting about Gucci, a brand that I have never shown great love for would be blog-ethical. The way I did approach it is to perhaps try and see if I would personally have a change of opinion, whilst taking in a trip on behalf of the blog.
On Tuesday, as I said, the press conference held at the new Fifth Avenue Store (for which all of this hoo-hah is for...) was heaving with a) Gucci bags.... so many that I began seeing duplicates and b) those running through the motions of New York Fashion Week engagements and there was myself, one and only amateur fash blogger (Betsy from Fashion is Spinach and Elisabeth from La Coquette are both pro journalists...). First, Mark Lee, the CEO of Gucci detailed the history of Gucci and its relationship with New York, how when the first store on Fifth Avenue opened in 1953, a 'special bond' between Gucci and New York formed. I later found out that Mark Lee is a self confessed New Yorker, hence why he seemed genuinely passionate and excited when speaking of the new store ('excited child proud of his school project' was the vibe I got with no offense to Mr Lee!).
Now comes the maths part. He then ran through some rather interesting figures of Gucci's profit growth. Dull as dishwater they may seem but it seemed interested how a brand that is known for its leather goods is making healthy increases in ready to wear (though the overall percentage of revenues was still dominated by leather goods 54.3% to be precise, RTW and shoes increased their revenues by 20% as opposed to leather goods which only increased by 10%). It says to me that a bigger interest is being taken in luxury brands' non-core businesses, that creative directors like Frida are taking the right steps to making people see Gucci as something other than just that brand that produces logo-ed bags. It occurred to me that perhaps it is my automatic disposition to rain down on the fat cats and champion the underdogs that makes me forget that fashion is also about business and that Gucci is exceedingly successful as a luxury brand and that after 50 years, they are one of the handful of brands that still remain. This isn't me joining the 'I love Gucci' parade but accepting it for what it is and respecting that.
Another maths fact that explained why there were SO many press people from the Asia Pacific. Asia and Japan (Japan brings in enough revenue to warrant it's own category) makes up 40% of total revenues. Ack is all I can say!
Frida Giannini then took the podium and ran through the concept of the store which she designed herself and instead of outsourcing architects, Gucci had an in-house team to realise their vision for the store. Natural light is a key component of the store (too bad, it was a bit of a gloomy day...) and historic Gucci materials were also incorporated such as dark rosewood and marble. It sounds too heavy for a store but when combined with all the smoked mirror/glass, perspex/glass and shiny gold, the store felt like an homage to both Gucci and Art Deco. It could have been ever so bling-tastic but it was actually rather understated and elegant but not in a cold way.
Later that day, all the bloggers were given a tour or the store in great detail by Mark Lee, who could have easily delegated the tours to someone else (he had already given three that day...) but undertook it himself and it was literally so indepth, I'm still getting little tidbits popping back in my brain even now. Though Frida Giannini is the creative director, Mark Lee seems involved in all processes and knew everything from what the lacquer the bamboo handles on a bag is covered with to the origins of the carpet design. I felt like I wanted to ask him really REALLY random things just to see if he would know it.... (I did ask him how he felt about the upcoming Ridley Scott film on Gucci.... he was all for it!).
I have to admit that because of the tour of the store and seeing things that made me think 'Oh my!', I did sneakily check out the SS08 collection after the tour just to refresh my memory as again, Gucci isn't one of those collections I memorise For example, in a very uncool way, I suddenly yelped 'Oh my God! I luuurve those shoes' when talking about the peep toe patent lace-ups from the SS08 collection. People laughed. It was on the 2nd floor with the shoes where all the really fashion-forward stuff came together and where my eyes started glinting and probably where Giannini's work is best-showcased.
 
As another way of celebrating the store's opening, they a) delved into the archives to create a Heritage line of bags that are based on designs in the archive and b) went a bit tongue in cheek and wanted to say a big 'I HEART NY' with an entire range of bags with this slogan emblazoned on it. I'll again be honest and say that yes, Gucci did bestow upon me such a bag which I had to be photographed with in front of my favourite NYC landmark (I chose the Frick Collection... who snootily would not allow pics inside it...). I'm still looking at the bag back in London and thinking how I can carry this without looking like I'm disturbingly REALLY into New York so I'm thinking loading it up with my red and blue chain scarves and necklaces with a t-shirt dress and red patent shoes will somehow make this work.
Through my sudden urge to back-up every five minutes, I did salvage some footage and made an ok-ish video of the tour. It of course would have been ma-hussively better with my footage of the main event but hey... best of a bad situation and all that.... Notes about my lack of professionality which has recently come up... People who see me as a professional blogger be it readers or the fashion industry (if any of them read this?!) need to get one thing clear: I have always and STILL work full time as a digital media planner and blogging is what I do part time (as in during unsociable hours...). Which means, when I'm supposedly swanning around the world doing fun-bloggery things with my boyfriend in tow, it is because I am taking those days off as part of my limited number of annual leave days. Ergo, effectively, that is my annual holiday. Slap me for wanting to be with the ones I love during those days. Yes, the Gucci trip was in essence a business trip but it was also a holiday for me which I don't get many of (you might have noticed I haven't been back to Hong Kong in an age.... that's because I have no time....). Attending any fashion weeks, fashion-related event are all taken as holidays. I'd love to be a Diane Pernet and traipse around the world dedicating my entire life to blogging but alas, I have to eat, live and pay high tax rates in Laaandon.
Yes, I majorly fucked up with my week of tech accidents/blunders and if you think I didn't cry over it or berated myself for letting down readers and also Gucci, because they were ever so helpful over the whole thing, then you're wrong. The boyf and also the bloody tissues can attest to that (I have nose bleeds when I cry....). I did my best to salvage the best out of a bad situation. What more can I do?
Oooh... I know...post about the actual event itself which is EVER so late and alas...sans images but there you go... | 
