Baby, You Can Drive My Car
lapo elkann, frida giannini, and friends party for their guccified fiat cinquecento
When icons collide, you get the 500 by Gucci, the Fiat Cinquecento—one of the most recognizable cars in human history—redesigned by Frida Giannini to mark Gucci's 90th birthday and the 150th anniversary of a unified Italy. Fiat scion Lapo Elkann brokered the union over a lunch with Giannini in Rome, and the trio (man, woman, and car) were the stars of the celebratory shindig Gucci threw last night in Milan.
The minute Gucci's Fall presentation finished yesterday, worker bees began transforming the show space in the Piazza Oberdan. Six hours later, guests—including a host of Gucci-clad catwalkers like Abbey Lee Kershaw, Anja Rubik, Joan Smalls, and Chanel Iman—walked into a nightclub, with DJ Sam Young spinning. Giannini is wired into the who's-on-next. Earlier in the day, she said Florence Welch had been an inspiration for her new collection. Last night, she introduced Sting's daughter Coco Sumner, whose band I Blame Coco played a 30-minute set. ("And only one song sounded like the Police," marveled a passing partygoer.) Then Harley Viera-Newton took over deck duties, playing songs from an era dear to Giannini's heart—the eighties. The Human League's "Don't You Want Me" had Lapo and Frida up, out, and away on the dance floor.
The third member of the trinity never made it to the disco. The 500 spent the night in the lobby, accepting visitors. First one in the driver's seat was Suzy Menkes. "My husband proposed to me when he was squeezed into the driving seat of my little Fiat in London's Regent's Park," she recalled. "Happy memories." For anyone else keen to start accumulating a reservoir of pleasant associations, 500 by Gucci will be available in Gucci-striped black or white for a price tag that starts around €17,000. What's more, from April 1 till June 30, it's selling online. Like to see you fit that through your letterbox.
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