Alongside the Spring/Summer 2024 Menswear presentation during Milan Fashion Week, Gucci has created an immersive exhibition for the 70th anniversary of one of its main symbols, the Horsebit Moccasins. Presented in the Spazio Maiocchi and under the title of Gucci Horsebeat Society, ten multidisciplinary artists from around the world have joined forces to pay homage to the famous pair of shoes and create a multidimensional space experience with the current menswear collection exhibited on mannequins as the grand finale.
Gucci Horsebit Society inaugurated last week with a private cocktail event only for invitees. The monumental exhibition tracks the origins of the iconic pair of shoes and reinterprets the tradition of the country club. As a result, it materialises in a sort of house where any Gucci lover would love to live in. The work of these artists is integrated into the space, creating a dialogue between each other and a collaborative experimentation with the iconography of the Horsebit insignia.
An example of this would be the surrealist table created by emerging American sculptor Pitter Patter placed in the ‘dining room’ of the house. The legs of the furniture represent actual human legs that are wearing Gucci trousers and Horsebit Loafers. Another example is the impressive horse photography captured by Charlie Engman located in the ‘bedroom’, where visitors can also find the only historic art piece that wasn’t created exclusively for the show: Bedroom Ensemble II, by Sylvie Fleury. In addition, the three-day event included live performances too, brought by the Spanish choreographer Candela Capitán and DJ sets by the legendary record label Ed Banger.
All this was organised by Alessio Ascari, creative director and curator of the Spazio Maiocchi. With the exhibition, he has demonstrated that the Horsebit icon created in 1953 by Aldo Gucci has lived comfortably for seven decades and has still a long way to go. Even in the new menswear collection found in the ‘closet’ of the house, you can see different versions of the emblem on bags, shoes and printed on clothes. We can’t wait to see what Sabato De Sarno, Gucci's new creative director, will do with the icon.
