Red carpet, spotlights illuminate the way inside: even at the entrance to the lapidarium on Berlin's Landwehr Canal, it is easy to see that you are entering the threshold to a spectacle.

The capital once stored its stone statues and monuments in the historic building, but the communications agency of the patron of the arts Christian Boros has now moved in there.

He has now rented the place to the Italian luxury house Gucci, which is setting itself a temporary memorial for around two months with a pop-up store and a fashionable adventure paradise for the 100th brand anniversary.

"Gucci Circolo" is the name of the retail and event laboratory set up on Bohei, which, tailored to the respective city and location, will re-explore, experience - and buy - the centenary history of the fashion house in a similar form in Milan and London until the end of November. leaves.

Including record collection, photo booth and lots of accompanying events.

Gucci Circolo is also exploring the question of what is actually possible in stationary retail.

Travel straight to the heart of the brand

Just walking the red carpet is a journey straight into the heart of the brand. After all, it is modeled on the catwalk on which Gucci presented its so-called “Aria” collection digitally as a film in April of this year. In Berlin, the guest practically becomes a model himself and now experiences the digital show for real. What a clever move by creative director Alessandro Michele: Not only is the brand story told here, everyone can also write their own Gucci story here.

The spotlight-lit catwalk is also a reference to the London luxury hotel Savoy, where the brand's narrative originated.

Founder Guccio Gucci worked there as a page for a while.

For him the best place to take a close look at the luxury travelers - and their luggage.

The cornerstone of the Florentine fashion house, which is one of the world's most sought-after luxury brands and, as part of the Kering luxury conglomerate, reported sales of 2.2 billion euros in the first quarter of 2021 alone.

Michele succeeds again and again with brand experiences like this one.

Homage to important milestones in Gucci's past

And by the way also with collections like “Aria”, which is shown in the Gucci Circolo Berlin on brightly colored dolls as well as hanging on the bars in the shop area. If you book a private shopping session in the coming weeks, you will even get a demonstration on a model. In the anniversary year, this collection, like everything else, pays homage to important stages in Gucci's past, peppered with references to the origins in the equestrian wardrobe, but also to the sexy years under Tom Ford.

"Aria" also caused a sensation because Michele used the key silhouettes of his biggest rival, the label Balenciaga, which is also part of the Kering Group - and with it the traditional idea of ​​what is original and fake, what is inspiration and theft of ideas, sabotaged. He himself described this as a “hack”, and Balenciaga promptly replied with a “steal back”. “The Hacker Project” can be understood as a political wedding just like that of two noble families earlier: an expression of the mutual strengthening of power of the two most sought-after luxury brands in the age of hypercapitalism. A story that can be told pretty well in the rooms of Gucci Cicolo in Berlin.

Who knows whether the two power houses are planning a joint event here in the temporary space in the coming weeks? Concerts, cocktails for invited guests, so much is still to happen. Meanwhile, inside, Gucci's fans and followers are waiting for everyone who books a visiting slot online, for example a so-called “listening lounge” in the lapidarium, which deals with the brand's connection to music and in which interested parties in vinyl records by artists like Elton John, Florence Welch, Achille Lauro and Harry Styles can browse - of course in the right ambience somewhere between vintage, zeitgeist and boudoir. Everything designed according to the brand's visual codes.

If you like, you can also download the playlist.

Next door in the photo box there is the photo strip as a reminder of the visit.

Anyone who has walked past the musical spectacle and through the Gucci 100 collection, such as the anniversary jerseys and accessories for ultra fans, will have a coffee on one of the elegant wing chairs at the end of the trip.

Are they overdone?

With the Gucci logo, of course.