Gucci’s Triumphant Ode to London

The human moths about the light
Dash and cling close in dazed delight,
And burn and laugh, the world and wife,
For this is London, this is life!

A stanza taken from A Ballad of London – Richard Le Gallienne

Londoners may just be some of the most miserable people you've ever met. Why? Because England's capital is a complicated, brutal (and beautiful) hell hole that chews people up and spits them out sooner than you can say 'Cheerio'. Alas, the simple truth is this: we wouldn't have it any other way.

The dazed delight English poet Richard Le Gallienne speaks of in his 1895 poem A Ballad of London is something I've always attributed to this beautiful city, one 8.8 million people call home. Relentlessly filled with contradiction after contradiction, London is a place divided in half, filled with chaos and stillness, smoke and sin, anguish and love. Many people will know Oxford Street to be as comparably busy to New York's Times Square on a good day but if you're one of the unlucky ones that stays put during the festive season, (and by that, I mean find yourself in an N1 postcode on 25 December), you'd quickly realise Cumbria has more inhabitants than the Big Smoke (for reference, the North West region bears on average 26 people per sqkm, a stark contrast to London's reported five and a half thousand).

You see, London, or Londoninium (as the Romans called it) is one of the most divine walking contradictions there ever was; and that’s exactly why it’s so great. It’s what makes me emphatically proud to be a Londoner, and I know I’m not alone when I say that. No where near. In fact, I'm surrounded by a swarm of others, each and every one equally appreciative to call London home. Among those include British artist Rachel Whiteread, Sonia Boyce OBE, Cerith Wyn Evans, Corbin Shaw, Sunil Gupta, Gilbert & George, Bob and Roberta Smith (Patrick Brill OBE) and even Mustafa The Poet... but being a Londoner isn't the only connection these fine originators have in common.

Interconnected in more ways than one, each artist also has work featured in Gucci’s new anthology, ANCORA LONDRA, as part of the fourth edition in the house’s Prospettive series. Conceived by Gucci creative director, Sabato De Sarno and specially curated by A Vibe Called Tech’s Charlene Prempeh and Lewis Gilbert, ANCORA LONDRA is many things - just like London - but above all, it's a manifesto of love for a city that holds it in every corner.

Some of the more finer artist offerings included in the book come from SHOWstudio friends Otamere Guobadia and Tracey Emin - the latter's Neon contribution I Followed You to the Sun, 2013 is sprawled full bleed across a double page adding a silent but prevalent romance to the book. Guobadia's poem This Fair City from his book Unutterable Visions, Perishable Breath is also an essential addition, especially if your someone who shares similar views on London as I (and Guobadia, for that matter). For those wondering if Richard Hamilton's Swingeing London '67 makes an appearance... I am here to say it does, not full bleed, not even on a double page spread, but it's there and that's what matters. (I'm convinced anyone who says this photograph isn't for them is a liar.) Benjamin Zephaniah's wickedly fierce poem London Breed can also be read on ANCORA LONDRA's pages. After all, what better verse sums up London than:

I love dis concrete jungle still
With all its sirens and its speed
The people here united will
Create a kind of London breed

I, uniquely like Prempeh and Dalton, have only ever known London as my hometown - a truth I consider to be as much of a strength as it is a weakness. Like them, I know all too well how each borough feels like an entire city on its own accord, home to its own accent, its own people, and culture, where each postcode is laced with its own identity, made up of music, food and fashion - all forces that enmesh borough with borough. Sometimes jarring, other times, breathtaking, and as any Londoner rightfully knows, this unique clash of culture is what makes London, it’s why some never leave, and why some people return again and again to get their hit - despite the overflowing piles of trash prevalent in Trafalgar Square. Some may even go as far to say the grottiness adds to the city’s belligerent kind of charm - a constant in a city that's forever changing its face (253 restaurants opened in the city in 2023 alone). Another constant is London's willing cultivation of togetherness in spite of otherness. In 2016, all but five London boroughs voted against Brexit - a reality that leaves the city feeling like its very own island rather than one encircled by an old school kind of bully-style hatred propelled by other parts of the country (which the rest of us are now still repaying debts over, physically, mentally, financially).

For those whose London dose requires a stealthy amount of pop culture, fear not because ANCORA LONDRA has answered in the form of Princess Diana papped on the school run (true @ladydirevengelooks style), Paul Mescal in his running gear (i'm saying nothing) and a screenshot from MIA's Galang music video from 2005 - because, why not? This curation is also interspersed by images taken of The Elizabeth Line from around its 2022 opening as well as that image of a policeman holding a 'HELP' sign from Gillian Wearing's Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say, 1992-1993. The message is loud and clear: if you want to understand the full extent of London's polarising glamour, grit, eccentricity and magnetism, look no further than this book - it truly has it all, just like London.