This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 12, 2015.

THE double G has been Gucci’s hallmark for decades, and in conjunction with the Italian luxury fashion house’s rejuvenating phase, the classic double-G canvas pattern has been given a “paint-over” with the recently launched Gucci Blooms and Gucci Caleido prints.

Creative director Alessandro Michele has been the catalyst of change, tasked with bringing a renaissance to the established but somewhat stagnated leather house. His debut men’s collection in Milan earlier this year, presented a week after taking over from his famed predecessor Frida Giannini, had set the tone for a fresh start.

Now the brand boldly innovates by covering its signature print with a layer of floral bouquet and an ever-shifting geometric pattern inspired by kaleidoscopy. On top of that, Gucci launched #GucciGram, a creative digital project targeted at increasing its virtual presence in a social media saturated world.

Inviting online talents, illustrators and image-makers from around the world, be it established names and emerging ones or those stuck in between, Gucci invited them to create and re-imagine artwork by incorporating the Gucci Blooms (#GGBlooms) and Gucci Caleido (#GGCaleido) motifs.

The blooms print are inspired by Michele’s interest in pop. The hyper-saturated flowers that stand out over its monochromatic background bringing to mind Andy Warhol’s flower screen prints and Impressionistic still-lifes. In contrast, the geometric Caleido patterns bring a contemporary edge that recalls artist Norman Wilkinson’s Dazzle camouflage.

The brand specifically targeted Instagram as its platform, the photo-sharing app which eschews longevity for real-time and disposability, its time bar on the top right of each photo reminds the user down to seconds how long since they last posted. As Instagram’s statement says, the internet has forever changed the way we interact with images. Nothing is static, and everything can be changed and altered, remixed with the help of technology. Yet it is more intimate than ever, a touch of a finger opens up literally a world of pictures from photographers and artists that we would otherwise have no access to.

The artists handpicked by the creative director represent the diversity of styles of imagery that can be birthed from such an established brand. There were those who incorporated a bloom print handbag into a classic fine art painting, a satirical snapshot of how to tell a real Gucci bag from a knockoff, digital designs that homed in on the prints, illustrations and caricatures and even selfies that used the talent’s face as a canvas.

What could be better for consuming culture, Gucci asks. Indeed, the brand draws a comparison to its re-invention of the classic print, convinced that technology is not here to replace artistry, but to heighten its impact, contrasting the existing traditional beauty with a new aesthetic layered on it.

Michele sums it up in an interview with Vogue, “My apartment is full of antique pieces, but I put everything together like a modern installation,” describing the creative clash of past and present and how the navigation between the two drives him.