Gucci revamped by recession

Patrizio Di Marco believes the recession was the "perfect opportunity" to revamp the Gucci brand.

The luxury label's chief executive - who heads up the company alongside creative director Frida Giannini - explained that, while in one way, the worldwide economic meltdown was "a disaster" for luxury fashion lines, it also offered a chance for the pair to rethink the brand.

He said: "In one sense, the recession was a complete disaster for luxury brands. Even the super wealthy stopped being compulsive shoppers for a while.

"But in another sense it was the perfect opportunity to rethink the way we did things."

One such thing that Frida - who worked at Fendi prior to her 2002 appointment at Gucci - chose to revamp was the brand's original Bamboo bag, which was originally designed in the 1940s.

She told Britain's The Times newspaper: "The original Bamboo bag was made from pigskin, but in the 1940s, pigskin was very rigid. I wanted to create something softer, to be more modern - but it had to be authentic, with the same skin, not with cow leather printed to look like pig.

"We also had to re-proportion it, because women like bags bigger these days. We made the leather strap shorter; added a chain strap."