In The House of Gucci, Lady Gaga plays the role of a complex woman, Patrizia Reggiani, a convicted criminal but also queen consort of an emporium dedicated to luxury, opulence and beauty. The New York actress wears jewels that are masterpieces of contemporary design.
“I don’t want your jewels, I want your drugs.” The phrase, blunt and aggressive, is part of the lyrics of Jewels N’ Drugs, one of the best songs on ARTPOP, Lady Gaga’s third album, released in 2013. At the time, the New York artist was living immersed in narcotic bohemia, but she has most likely changed her mind about it eight years later. Drugs, as she has stated on occasion, are no longer part of her life. Instead, he is increasingly fond of jewelry.
The jewelry worn by Lady Gaga at La Casa Gucci as a symbol of refinement and luxury.
In January 2019 she appeared at the Oscars ceremony wearing a true incunabulum of contemporary opulence. A jewel that was set with the mythical Tiffany yellow diamond, a 128.54-carat gem valued at 30 million dollars. The piece, found in a South African mine in 1877, was polished by the famous American gemologist George Frederick Kunz and sold for a fortune to the New York jeweler Charles Tiffany. It was exhibited in museums such as the Smithsonian in Washington DC and Audrey Hepburn wore it during the promotional campaign for Breakfast at Tiffany. The Manhattan singer and actress says she felt “like she was wearing a piece of history around her neck”.
The jewelry worn by Lady Gaga in The House of Gucci (House of Gucci)(House of Gucci) has little to envy the Tiffany diamond. Most of them are part of Bvlgari’s fine jewelry and historical heritage collection, although exclusive designs by Tudor, Boucheron or Gucci are also on display, all with the unmistakable vintage aroma that corresponds to a film set in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
The film stars Adam Driver and Lady Gaga. Image courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Among the jewelry worn by Lady Gaga at La Casa Gucci, Bvlgari pieces stand out, especially a gold necklace with amethysts, citrines, pink tourmalines, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds that was part of the collection of the American princess of Pakistani origin Yasmin Aga Khan, daughter of Rita Hayworth. Completing the collection are some simply exquisite gold earrings with amethysts, two platinum earrings with oval rubies from Mozambique or some Tubogas bracelets with amethysts and diamonds.
Florentine luxury: jewelry that tells a story
As Celine Yap said in Vogue, these are “refined examples of Italian high jewelry”. Sculptural 18-karat gold pieces with bold, often extravagant designs. Bracelets of “sublime decadence” and necklaces of “daring and radiant” opulence. Some of these pieces barely appear for a few seconds on screen. But they are there, contributing to the atmosphere of exclusive glamour of what is shaping up to be one of the great releases of the final stretch of the film season. According to Yap “The jewelry makes a decisive contribution to telling the story.”
If the aim was to capture the essence of the Gucci family, “the first thing that was essential was to eloquently show the material universe of refinement and luxury in which their lives unfolded”. That’s why the jewelry Lady Gaga wears in The House of Gucci is vitally important in helping to put in context and give context.
Dressed in après-ski and Christian Dior sunglasses. Photo provided by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The complicated path to make The Gucci House a reality.
That The House of Gucci is about to be released is good news in itself. Ridley Scott‘s film came to carry with it a certain brand of cursed project, of those that end up tangled in their own labyrinth and never see the light of day. Scott began talking about a drama based on the murder of Italian businessman Maurizio Gucci as early as 2006. At the time, he was going to direct it himself, with Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio in the two main roles, that of the heir to the Gucci emporium and that of his first wife and instigator of his murder, Patrizia Reggiani.
Lady Gaga wearing one of the lavish lace earrings she wears in The House of Gucci. Photo courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn -Mayer
In subsequent years, it was announced that the project would be taken over first by Ridley’s daughter, Jordan Scott, and then by Taiwanese filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai, with Penelope Cruz or Margot Robbie in the role of Reggiani, the scorned and homicidal wife. Finally, already at the end of 2019, the cast was closed with Adam Driver and Lady Gaga as the leading couple and Ridley Scott definitively assuming the direction. Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, Camille Cottin, Al Pacino and Jack Huston complete a formidable cast and Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna sign one of the scripts that have suffered more darns and patches in recent decades.
Uncomfortable portrait of a very unique woman
Beyond the lavish jewelry and exquisite styling, Lady Gaga this time puts herself in the shoes of a human being with a very complex piscology. A murderess entangled in a marital soap opera with unusual pomp and circumstance as a backdrop. Born in 1948 in the Adriatic region of Emilia-Romagna, Patrizia Reggiani met Maurizio Gucci at a private party in 1970. They married two years later and settled in New York to the despair of the Gucci family patriarch, who considered Reggiani “an untalented and unscrupulous careerist” who only cared about money.
In the movie The House of Gucci Lady Gaga wears a vintage Gucci monogram print. Photo: Fabio Lovino. Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn -Mayer
The couple led a glittering lifestyle for years, occupying a huge penthouse in New York’s Olympic Tower, the mass of glass and steel on whose facade is reflected St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After years of frequenting ski resorts, luxury resorts and the exclusive social circle of Jackie Onassis, Maurizio and Patrizia separated in 1985 and he began a relationship with a childhood friend, interior designer Paola Franchi. The film focuses largely on the time when Reggiani, separated from her husband and convalescing from a brain tumor, began to suffer from pathological jealousy and to accumulate a deep resentment against her husband, from whom she would eventually divorce in 1994. A few months later, in March 1995, she hired a hitman to kill him.
From fiction to reality
After serving 18 years in prison, she was released for good behavior in October 2016. Today, at 72, she lives in central Milan, where she is often seen strolling alone with her pet parrot on her shoulder. When it was made public that Lady Gaga was to play her on the big screen, Reggiani was enthusiastic. He went so far as to say that he considers her a great actress and that he feels “immense admiration” for her.
However, once the filming was over, the woman whom the Italian press dubbed “the black widow of the fashion world” was “disappointed” that Gaga didn’t want to meet her: “It’s not a question of money. I know perfectly well that I won’t get a penny out of this film. But if you’re going to represent my life, what less than coming to see me, listen to me and know my side of the story?”.
‘House of Gucci’ opens in theaters on November 26.
