Anatomy of a Classic: Gucci's Jackie 1961
Play the song “Ancora, Ancora, Ancora,” by the great Italian diva Mina, at any club in Milan, and the ragazzi will still, nearly 50 years after its release, breathlessly sing along. “Farmi morire ancora/Perché ti amo ancora,” the chanteuse croons. “Make me die again/Because I still love you.”
The translation doesn’t quite do the word ancora justice. Literally it means again, but as the lyrics suggest, it also evokes unfinished business, a craving for someone or something that you tried once and desire over and over.
For Mina it’s a romance. For Gucci’s new creative director, Sabato De Sarno, who titled both his men’s and women’s spring collections “Ancora,” it’s the vibe that has epitomized this Florentine house from its earliest days—a carefree, confident sensibility that was distilled in 1961 to a single handbag: the Jackie, named for the first lady who was so often seen on the streets of New York with precious few accessories besides her oversize sunglasses and this crescent-shaped clutch.
Originally rendered in black leather with a red interior, always with a snap hook clasp, the Jackie has been a touchstone for the label for more than 60 years, reinterpreted by every designer who has taken the helm.
De Sarno imagined his version “not for a museum but to enrich everyday life,” perhaps going from grocery shopping in Brera to dancing at Club Plastic Milano—to Mark Ronson’s fresh remix of Mina’s indelible anthem, which has gone viral. The kids, it seems, can’t get enough.
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