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A History of the Best Gucci Handbags
In 1897, a man named Guccio Gucci left his native Florence for London, where he worked at the tony Savoy Hotel as a bellhop. Handling the luggage of the ritzy clientele there gave him the education he needed to return to Italy and produce his very own line of travel-centric leather goods. The year was 1921 when Guccio finally opened the doors to his boutique on Florence’s Via della Vigna Nuova, selling imported suitcases in addition to goods handcrafted by local artisans. It didn’t take long for customers to latch onto Guccio’s wares, and soon after that, Gucci became an outright sensation.
The Best Gucci Handbags to Shop Now
The Gucci Horsebit 1955
Gucci Horsebit 1955 small shoulder bag
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A trade embargo placed on Italy during Mussolini’s rule meant that materials—leather in particular—were scarce. So, Guccio and his sons Aldo, Vasco, and Rodolfo (all now part of the family business) had to get creative, making wicker, raffia, and wood Gucci signatures in addition to cuoio grasso, an incredibly smooth veal calf leather. (Nearby, the Florentine Salvatore Ferragamo was also making do with what was available with his cork-heel creations.) At around the same time, Gucci also developed a woven hemp textile with a diamond pattern, a precursor to the current double-G monogram.
The Jackie Bag, photographed by Lucas Lefler, Vogue, August 2021
Photographed by Lucas Lefler, Vogue, August 2021
Around 1947, Gucci made fashion history with its bamboo-handled bag, a structured little purse adorned with a bamboo handle bent by the heat of a flame. By 1953, Ingrid Bergman was carrying a variation in the film Viaggio in Italia, setting off Hollywood’s love affair with Gucci. Reported visitors to Gucci’s Florence shop included then–Princess Elizabeth (before her ascent to the British throne), Eleanor Roosevelt, and Elizabeth Taylor. A stint as an actor meant that Rodolfo would also bring in his own picture-making friends like Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, and Sophia Loren.
By the 1950s, when la dolce vita was in full swing in Rome, and Manhattan was a playground for monied movers and shakers, Gucci was outfitting and accessorizing it all. Over the next two decades, Gucci opened up shops just about everywhere worth being seen. One day, at the Milan outpost, Grace Kelly walked in and got a silk scarf decorated with a feminine floral pattern (dubbed the Flora, which remains a house code to this day); on another, Jackie Kennedy Onassis
Roberto Gucci in 1984.
Photo: Getty Images
picked out a hobo bag. The latter was recently reissued by Alessandro Michele, as were the bamboo-handled Diana bag and the Gucci Attache bag. Michele was also responsible for the Dionysus and the Marmont—two bags that have maintained their It bag status years after their debuts.
His successor, Sabato De Sarno, introduced the GG Milano, a polished top-handle style that reflected his streamlined vision for the house. Then, in 2025, Gucci turned to Demna, the Georgian designer whose decade at Balenciaga yielded many handbag hits. Rather than stage a traditional runway debut, Demna unveiled his first Gucci collection through a surprise digital lookbook and a short film, The Tiger, projected on giant screens in Milan and New York’s Times Square. The collection’s emphasis on horsebits, equestrian references, and archival silhouettes suggested a renewed conversation with Gucci’s past. At his recent Cruise 2027 spectacle staged in New York’s Times Square—the designer has reimagined house signatures such as the Jackie, Bamboo 1947, and Horsebit while introducing new styles including the Madison shoulder bag, the Borsetto, and the Mercato tote.
