I was introduced to Flora in late 2004 when they brought the pattern out of the archives for shoes, bags, scarves etc. etc. for Cruise Collection '05 and Spring/Summer '05.
I bought these shoes! I know they are ugly in a way, but they are also unexpected - and whenever I wear them I get a least one compliment from a stranger! One time someone actually took a picture of them... seriously! I think it's time to bring them out... it's feeling like Spring finally...
Right now Gucci isn't doing too much with the Flora pattern. They do have a few scarves in the Spring/Summer '10 collection available. Here is the classic one, white background 35" square silk. Flora Foulard, $355.
Here is the background on Flora from the Gucci website:
Flora, one of the most loved Gucci icons, was born as a special commission for Princess Grace of Monaco in 1966. The princess had paid a visit to the Gucci store in Milan with Prince Ranier. Having bought a green "bamboo bag" Rodolfo Gucci insisted she selected a gift. When she relented she asked for a scarf. Rodolfo was distressed: he felt Gucci lacked one special enough for his distinguished guest. He immediately contacted the renowned illustrator Vittorio Accornero, to design the most beautiful floral scarf he could create. The next day Accornero returned with his painting: it was the "Flora", a multicolored flowered template that was destined for an unimaginably extended future.
Flora kindled such long-lasting affection among European women that they passed it onto their daughters. One was Caroline of Monaco, who wore a blouse in her "mother's" scarf-print as a teenager; another, the much younger Frida Giannini, whose own mother loved the print as a girl in Rome. Re-connecting with that feeling, Giannini's revived Flora on printed canvas bags for summer 2005, was met with overwhelming demand. Other Flora variations, re-scaled, re-coloured and abstracted, made it onto Forties/Seventies inspired print dresses for summer 2006, into jewelry and on evening bags. They were all hits: living proof of the power of a Gucci icon 40 years after it was first imagined.
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