Gucci Diana Small

Bamboo, born of shortage

The Diana's handles are older than the bag. Gucci was founded in Florence in 1921, and when Mussolini's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia led the League of Nations to impose a trade embargo on Italy, leather grew scarce and the company turned to other materials. In 1947 it launched the Bamboo bag, whose lightweight bamboo handles answered continuing postwar shortages. Bamboo became one of the house's signatures.

By the late 1980s Gucci was in trouble. Mass production, which reached 700,000 handbags a year in the 1980s, had worn down its exclusivity. Dawn Mello, hired in November 1989 as executive vice president and chief designer, cut the number of stores from more than 1,000 to 180, cut the product range from 22,000 items to 7,000, and revived the Bamboo bag and the Gucci loafer.

The tote now called the Diana arrived in 1991, in that period of rebuilding. It was a simple rectangular holdall with bamboo-shaped handles. Bands around the handles helped them keep their shape, including in humid weather.

The princess and the gym bag

In the early 1990s photographers waited for Diana, Princess of Wales, outside Chelsea Harbour Gym in London, where she appeared in collegiate sweaters and cycling shorts. The roomy Gucci tote was often on her arm, and it came to stand for what one fashion writer called her 'personal freedom.' As she moved away from the royal family her clothes grew bolder, and her stylist Anna Harvey said she always set aside the formality of royal dress codes.

She did not save the bag for the gym. She was photographed with it at more formal events and on ordinary errands, and she carried it in 1996 when she took Prince William to Eton. The bag was linked with her from then on, but Gucci did not officially give it her name until 2021.

Diana died on August 31, 1997. Gucci did not bring the tote back under her name until 2021, after Alessandro Michele began reviving bags from the archive.

Thirty years on: the 2021 Diana

Alessandro Michele, Gucci's creative director from 2015, built much of his tenure on reviving archive bags. After the Horsebit 1955 and the Jackie came back, he turned to the bamboo tote. The new Gucci Diana launched on July 6, 2021, days after what would have been Diana's 60th birthday on July 1.

Michele's main change is easy to spot. Removable neon leather belts wrap the bamboo handles in fluorescent yellow, pink or orange. Gucci calls them 'a nod to the functional bands used to keep the handles in shape.' Letters and star symbols could be embossed on the inside of the belts. The 2021 line came in mini, small and medium sizes and seven colors; cuir was the closest to Diana's own bag. Prices ran from about $2,600 to $12,000.

Sienna Miller, Jodie Turner-Smith and Elle Fanning were among the first to carry it. On the runway the bag appeared on the arm of a pink-haired model holding a pet rabbit.

How to read a small Diana

Gucci's current small Diana in black leather measures 7.9 x 6.3 x 3.9 inches. It has shiny antique gold-tone hardware, a Double G, a microfiber lining with a suede-like finish, and an interior open pocket. The bamboo handles have a 3.1-inch drop. It comes with two decorative belt handle shapers, a web strap adjustable from an 18.1- to 28.7-inch drop, and a leather strap adjustable from 17.3 to 21.6 inches.

This entry follows a canvas version that its seller titles 'GG Rhombus' but describes in the material line as beige and ebony GG Supreme canvas with brown calfskin trim. It has gold-tone hardware, a suede-lined interior, a removable shoulder strap and the serial code 721168.520981. The seller measures it at 9.5 inches high, 10.5 inches wide and 4.25 inches deep, larger than Gucci's figures for the current leather small. The sources do not explain the difference.

Other small Dianas on the resale market combine GG Supreme canvas with calfskin printed in a rhombus pattern. One such bag, described in beige, ebony, mystic white, hazel brown and black, came with a strap, a dust bag and two belt shapers. The belt shapers matter when identifying a later Diana: they are the feature that sets the 2021 design apart from the 1991 original.

Retail and resale

On October 1, 2026, Gucci's US site listed the small Diana in black leather at $3,650 and the medium at $4,490. That day the small 'GG Rhombus' canvas example in this entry was offered for resale at $3,395, in very good condition with dents in the exterior leather, rubbed feet, marks on the lining and a broken stitch at the opening.

Readers of one handbag site noted in 2021 that original 1991-era totes, without the neon belts or the GG detail, could sometimes be found secondhand for a few hundred dollars. Those are reader comments, not verified sales, and they are not recorded as prices here.

The numbers

Dimensions (Gucci, small in black leather)

7.9 x 6.3 x 3.9 in

Dimensions (resale, small canvas example)

9.5 in high x 10.5 in wide x 4.25 in deep

Material (this entry's example)

Beige and ebony GG Supreme coated canvas with brown calfskin trim, listed as 'GG Rhombus'

Handles

Bamboo, 3.1 in drop, with two removable leather belt shapers

Hardware

Gold-tone; Gucci lists shiny antique gold-tone with a Double G on the leather small

Straps (current Gucci small)

Web strap 18.1-28.7 in drop; leather strap 17.3-21.6 in drop

Production quantity

Not stated by any source

Timeline

1. 1921

   Guccio Gucci opens his shop in Florence.

2. 1935

   A League of Nations embargo on Italy makes leather scarce, pushing Gucci toward other materials.

3. 1947

   Gucci launches the Bamboo bag, its handles a response to postwar shortages.

4. Nov 1989

   Dawn Mello joins Gucci, cuts stores and products, and revives the Bamboo bag.

5. 1991

   Gucci introduces the bamboo-handle tote later named the Diana.

6. 1996

   Diana carries the tote while taking Prince William to Eton.

7. Aug 31, 1997

   Diana, Princess of Wales, dies.

8. Jan 2015

   Alessandro Michele becomes Gucci's creative director.

9. Jul 1, 2021

   What would have been Diana's 60th birthday; one account says the new bag was announced in her honor.

10. Jul 6, 2021

    The Gucci Diana launches in mini, small and medium sizes with neon leather belts.

11. Nov 2022

    Michele steps down at Gucci.

12. Oct 1, 2026

    Gucci lists the small Diana in black leather at $3,650; a small canvas example is offered for resale at $3,395.

The world in 1991

• Jan 16, 1991

  Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq.

• Jun 25, 1991

  Croatia and Slovenia declare independence from Yugoslavia.

• Jul 1991

  India begins sweeping economic liberalization.

• Aug 6, 1991

  Tim Berners-Lee announces the World Wide Web project; the first website, info.cern.ch, is created.

• Aug 19, 1991

  Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest in a coup attempt that collapses within three days.

• Dec 26, 1991

  The Supreme Soviet formally dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Gucci Diana Small is number 50 of 100 in the handbags entries of the FLOAT 100. 19 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (58 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The neon belts are a nod to the plain bands that kept the original bamboo handles from losing shape.
• The bag was tied to Diana for decades before Gucci officially named it for her in 2021.
• Gucci's bamboo handles go back to 1947, when postwar shortages limited materials.
• Gucci's cuir colorway was chosen as the closest match to the bag Diana carried.
• Letters and stars could be embossed inside the neon belts to personalize the bag.
• The relaunch was shown on a model carrying a pet rabbit.