Gucci

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 Gucci’s most notable products.

In 1947, Gucci introduced the bamboo handle handbag, which is still a Gucci 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. Gucci 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 Gucci.

After Guccio's death in 1953, Aldo helped lead Gucci to a position of international prominence, opening Gucci’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 Gucci’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, Gucci 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 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 Gucci to the verge of bankruptcy.

At the time, brothers Aldo and Rodolfo controlled equal 50% shares of Gucci, though Aldo felt that his brother contributed less to Gucci 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 Gucci’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  Gucci. 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, fighting 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.  

Fashion Gucci (100% share of ownership, also watches 100%) Yves Saint Laurent (100%, also perfume brand 100% and watches brand 100%) Sergio Rossi (70%) Bottega Veneta (78.5%) Alexander McQueen (51%, also perfume brand 100%) Stella McCartney (50%, also perfume brand 100%) Balenciaga (91%) Perfume Roger & Gallet Boucheron (also jewelry and watches) Ermenegildo Zegna Oscar de la Renta Van Cleef & Arpels Fendi