Archive Stories

For many years, beginning in 1994, Marie kept a record of her work by taking photos of every piece she made with her Polaroid. It was her custom to note the date and the customer’s (or friend’s) name, an archival approach that now allows us to retrace her first designs – some of which have been auctioned off via Sotheby’s in 2022 – and the stories and relationships connected to those glasses.

 

Thirty-three Polaroids were addressed to Palazzo Grassi, the renowned contemporary art museum located in a historic Venetian palace on the Grand Canal, now home to the Pinault Collection. I later learned that was where Marie’s Goto glasses were first shown, during the 1995 Venice Biennale. Shortly after, they would land in some of the best shopping destinations of the time, like Barneys and The Conran shop.

 

Below are some of the Polaroids Marie shot before giving Palazzo Grassi the Gotos:

After the debut at Palazzo Grassi, a local newspaper’s review acknowledged the Gotos as artistic endeavors “holding traces of Kandinsky and Klee.” Not surprisingly, those were the artists whose works Marie grew up surrounded by.

 

One year after the Palazzo Grassi debut – as the photos dated from 1996 would testify – Marie decided to bring the Gotos to a friend and neighbor’s storefront, Giordana Naccari, owner of L’Angolo del Passato. This legendary glass antique shop near our headquarters was the first retailer of Marie’s original drinkware and has now turned into our first brick-and-mortar store, Spazio.

 

Before 1996, Giordana says, our founder was selling the Gotos primarily out of her home, located on the last floor of Palazzo Giustinian Brandolini. There, she had her studio – Laguna~B’s first-ever location – and did all the engraving, packaging, and shipping herself. She shot the Polaroids off her bookshelf, setting the glasses always over the same white ledge.” She used to take pictures of all the glasses she gave to her clients or me,” Giordana says. At first, it was just friends and family. But after the Palazzo Grassi exhibition and the diffusion of the Goto in top-tier retailers, her network expanded. Frédéric Malle’s first storefront in Paris – which opened in 2000 in Rue de Grenelle – featured the glasses, too. “I had used Gotos on my desk since the mid 90’s to put my perfume blotters, my pens and pencils, and more,” he remembers.

Besides clients and retailers, her friends’ names also pop up written on the Polaroids. Laudomia Pucci, for example – whose name I found written on a photo portraying four beautiful white Gotos – was one of Marie’s best friends. She’s the daughter of Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci and the founder and curator of the Emilio Pucci Heritage Hub in Florence. She met our founder when she moved to Paris at age 15. “Marie was the first person I met there. We grew up together like sisters.”

 

The white Gotos in the Polaroid – which she still treasures – were the first she received from Marie. Many more would come. “Since then, I have always had Laguna~B colorful glasses in my homes, as well as in my office, everywhere. Even at Palazzo No. 6 Emilio Pucci Heritage I always have your glasses displayed at the bar or in the diner." Laudomia says.

 

“Marie's glasses have remained part of my everyday life when, in fact, they are not everyday glasses at all. They are special. But she gave them this effortlessness, this simplicity, that was typical of her. She was very sophisticated but made it look all very easy.” Laudomia says she’s not surprised to find out about the hundreds of Goto Polaroids because her friend “always carried photos and postcards of her glasses with her, even in her evening clutches”. No dinner passed without her handing out some. “And everyone was happy to receive her postcards.” This is how she did her marketing, Laudomia explains, by genuinely showing her friends the creations she was so proud of. “Marie was able to put together everything she loved: her family, her creativity, Venice, and art. She managed to combine traditional craftsmanship with contemporary elements, as well as her life as a mom with her creative life”.

The photographic collection – which we named ‘The Goto Polaroids’, seems to further emphasize the attachment our founder felt for her creations. Our archive starts here. While I flip through the Polaroids, now neatly arranged and filed into a dedicated volume, I realize here are compiled the ingredients from which Laguna~B was born 30 years ago: curiosity, friendships, humanity, art, adventures, freedom; and Marie’s unconditioned devotion to her work. And I must say, the recipe hasn’t changed much.