At the Gucci Garden in Florence, in the Palazzo della Mercanzia, they are framed like paintings: A 90 x 90 centimetre square decorated with fantasy, from floral and equestrian themes to animal and nautical motifs such as that of the first Tolda di Nave scarf that the Maison designed in 1958 in collaboration with a Como silk factory. The most famous, however, remains the one tied around Grace Kelly's neck in mythological black and white shots, printed with 43 types of flowers, plants and insects in a lively palette of 37 different colors. Rodolfo Gucci commissioned it from Vittorio Accornero de Testa, to pay homage to the princess who visited the Maison's Milanese boutique to buy a Bamboo handbag in 1966. Not finding anything he thought was up to par in the collection, he called his friend and illustrator to create the accessory. A meticulous garden to wear, which has over the years has become a Gucci code extended to countless items (all enclosed in a dedicated room of the fifteenth-century Palazzo Settimanni, which has been the brand's archive since 1996) and which is today among the re-read and reactivated symbols of The Art of Silk, the project—now in its second edition—with which Gucci reopens its silky memory by calibrating it to contemporaneity.

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Ten scarves selected by creative director Demna are thus rearranged as a new visual lexicon: Your Majesty, Double Trouble, Golden Bite, Silk Garden, Lungomare, Hard-Wear, Salon Privé, Il Gattino, together with two variations of Flora. Names that already contain the visual imagination of the Maison, for carré scarves that embody the craftsmanship of the first decorative language while offering a nuanced reflection on the continuous exploration of silk as an expressive medium. Accessories have returned to enrich street style and catwalks, habits recovered from a past of divas with an unattainable aplomb, an (in)consistent tool for customising a look—an approach that is also evident in the campaign Gucci dedicates to this project.

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The scarf, the signature accessory, attached to a blouse like a belt, tied around the head with sophisticated charm, around the neck with the flaps to form a top, or even arranged as a dress with a smooth hand, is seen as a dynamic element of expression, an object that lives precisely in the originality with which it is worn and far from being fixed and nostalgic. A continuous shift between archive and use, where drawings are freed from their origin to return to circulation; lightened, almost mobile, crossed by movement, texture and styling that rewrite their presence without betraying their now legendary memory. As in the two Flora scarves created exclusively for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on the occasion of the opening of the new David Geffen Galleries; that dense garden continues to germinate inspiration beyond the time it was born without ever losing its original density.

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Made of fine Italian silk from Southern Italy, these limited-edition pieces are part of an initiative based on local knowledge, developed in collaboration with Nido di Seta and Ongetta. A project rooted in Calabria, aimed at reactivating a historic silk supply chain: From the organic cultivation of mulberry to the recovery of abandoned land, to the creation of new job opportunities, part of a production system that is structured as a cooperation network between small producers and powered by renewable energy. In this perspective, Flora's return also coincides with a wider rebirth of Italian silk, not as an exercise in memory but as a living practice capable of bringing craftsmanship and future together.

To reaffirm that continuous dialogue with cultural institutions, the scarves will be available exclusively at the LACMA Store and the Gucci flagship in Beverly Hills, while a collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence has involved ten students in translating the yokes into painting, moving the motif once again—from silk to canvas, in this case—without fixing it permanently. The works will be exhibited in the Gucci store on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, creating a bridge between archival design and contemporary artistic interpretation, and the Maison will support the project with dedicated scholarships, reinforcing its commitment to the enhancement of emerging talents and the training of tomorrow's creatives.

A gesture, therefore, that is not limited to celebrating the past, but extends its possibilities by entrusting it to new hands, just like those scarves: Stylish devices that every era rewrites in its own way without ever distorting its appeal. (Not only) for divas.

This story was first seen on ELLE Italia.