Gucci, or the House of Gucci, is an Italian
fashion and leather goods label. It was founded by Guccio
Gucci (1881-1953) in Florence in 1921.
Like many other high-fashion companies, Gucci
began as a small, family-owned saddlery and leather goods
store. Guccio Gucci was the son of an Italian merchant from
the country’s northern manufacturing region. As a young man,
he quickly built a reputation for quality, hiring the best
craftsmen he could find to work in his atelier. In 1938, Gucci
expanded and a boutique was opened in Rome. Guccio was responsible
for designing many of the company's most notable products.
In 1947, Gucci introduced the bamboo handle handbag, which
is still a company mainstay. During the 1950s, Gucci also
developed the trademark striped webbing, which was derived
from the saddle girth, and the suede moccasin with a metal
bit.
Guccio and his wife Aida Calvelli had a large
family, six children in all, though only his sons—Vasco, Aldo,
Ugo, and Rodolfo—would play a role in leading the company.
After Guccio's death in 1953, Aldo helped lead the company
to a position of international prominence, opening the company’s
first boutiques in London, Paris and New York. Even in Gucci’s
fledgling years, the family was notorious for its ferocious
infighting. Disputes regarding inheritances, stock holdings,
and day-to-day operations of the stores often divided the
family and led to alliances. As Gucci expanded overseas, board
meetings about the company’s future often ended with tempers
flaring and luggage and purses flying. Gucci targeted the
Far East for further expansion in the late 1960s, opening
stores in Hong Kong and Tokyo. At that time, the company also
developed its famous GG logo (Guccio Gucci's initials), the
Flora silk scarf (worn prominently by Hollywood actress Grace
Kelly), and the Jackie O shoulder bag, made famous by Jackie
Kennedy, the wife of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Gucci's London boutique.
Enlarge
Gucci's London boutique.
Gucci remained one of the premier luxury goods
establishments in the world until the late 1970s, when a series
of disastrous business decisions and family quarrels brought
the company to the verge of bankruptcy. At the time, brothers
Aldo and Rodolfo controlled equal 50% shares of the company,
though Aldo felt that his brother contributed less to the
company than he and his sons did. In 1979, Aldo developed
the Gucci Accessories Collection, or GAC, intended to bolster
the sales for the Gucci Parfums sector, which his sons controlled.
GAC consisted of small accessories, such as cosmetic bags,
lighters, and pens, which were priced at considerably lower
points than the other items in the company’s accessories catalogue.
Aldo relegated control of Parfums to his son Roberto in an
effort to weaken Rodolfo’s control of the overall operations
of the company.
Though the Gucci Accessories Collection was
well received, it proved to be the destabilizing force that
brought the Gucci dynasty crashing down. Within a few years,
the Parfums division began outselling the Accessories division.
The newly-founded wholesaling business had brought the once-exclusive
brand to over a thousand stores in the United States alone
with the GAC line, deteriorating the brand’s standing with
fashionable customers. "In the 1960s and 1970s,"
writes Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, "Gucci had
been at the pinnacle of chic, thanks to icons such as Audrey
Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Jacqueline Onassis. But by the 1980s,
Gucci had lost its appeal, becoming a tacky airport brand."
It didn’t take long before counterfeiters
ravaged the company’s pomp by flooding the market with cheap
knockoffs, further tarnishing the Gucci name. Meanwhile, infighting
was taking its toll on the operations of the company back
in Italy: Rodolfo and Aldo squabbled over the Parfums division,
of which Rodolfo controlled a meager 20% stake. By the mid-1980s,
when Aldo was convicted of tax evasion in the United States
by the testimony of his own son, the outrageous headlines
of gossip magazines generated as much publicity for Gucci
as its designs.
Rodolfo’s death in 1983 caused a major shakeup
in the company when he left his 50% stake in Gucci to his
son, Maurizio Gucci. Maurizio allied with Aldo’s son Paolo
to gain control of the Board of Directors and established
the Gucci Licensing division in the Netherlands for tax purposes.
(This action would later have a drastic impact on the outcome
of the company’s dispute with the world’s largest luxury goods
company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.) Following
the decision, the rest of the family left the company and,
for the first time in years, one man was at the helm of Gucci.
Maurizio sought to bury the fighting that had torn the company
and his family apart and turned to talent outside of the company
for Gucci’s future.
taken from Wikipedia
Shop for:
Gucci Handbags
Gucci Accessories
Spelling variations:
Gucci, Guci, Guchi, Gucc
