Gucci

By SARA TEMPLETON

Guccio Gucci

From A-list celebrities to top models, rock stars to writers and big business bosses to sports stars from all over the world, many will be seen out wearing the Gucci label.

For almost 100 years the Gucci name has been synonymous with high society, and for good reason.

Not only is there decades of tradition in the label, which includes the odd scandal here and there, but the design teams at Gucci, currently headed up by one Tom Ford - a graduate of the Parsons School of Design - appear to be outdoing themselves with some rather impressive collections of late.

But where did the Gucci name originate?

Let's start at the top - back in 1881, an Italian by the name of Guccio Gucci was born. He went on to become a craftsman of quite some repute, but it started in 1906, when he founded the House of Gucci, which initially was a saddlery shop in the Northern Italian city of Florence.

Later, he moved to Paris, for what are - to this day - largely unknown reasons. One could make suppositions about forbidden love, fishing trips and camp fires, but they would be purely random and not based in reality.

Not long after, he again moved to London, where he worked as the Maitre d'Hotel at the Savoy Hotel. It is said that during his time working at the Savoy, he was inspired by many of the extravagant suitcases and luggage items he saw and, so, thought he could go one better by making his own.

As such, in 1920, when Guccio was 39, he moved back to Italy to create a new range of leather travel accessories. With some 30,000 lira, he opened what could be labelled the first Gucci Shop. His original clients early on in the piece were predominantly horse riders who would come to him for accessories.

With mixed results early on in the leather luggage scene, Guccio Gucci's work became extremely popular once the war (WWII) had ended. Many say that his leather crafting was impeccable, and this led to a resurgence in Gucci's popularity - as his clientele steadily became more sophisticated, so did his creations.

Fathering four sons who helped with the day-to-day running of the company, the Gucci name went from strength to strength. With the help of his sons - Aldo, Ugo, Vasco and Rodolfo - the company expanded rapidly. They immediately opened up new Gucci outlets in Rome and Milan, boosting business and getting the Gucci name out there.

Tom Ford

In 1953, sadly, Guccio Gucci died. But his legacy lived on through his sons who, in that year, opened the first overseas Gucci boutique in the US - New York to be precise.

During the 50s, classic designs such as unique ties, belt clasps and even the trusty moccasin made Gucci a well-known name, and things like the the bamboo handled-handbag were huge hits among the fashion-conscious. New shops opened across the globe in the late 50s in places such as London, Tokyo, Paris and Beverly Hills. Business was booming!

In the 60s the GG brand was considered to be one of the status symbols of the decade, but from here things weren't exactly rosy...

In 1982 the company was renamed Guccio Gucci spA and a severe split between the Gucci family members was well documented at the time. It would be fair to say that the 80s is an era the Gucci family would like forget, such was the infighting.

In 1989, Maurizio Gucci was installed as president of the Gucci Group, but bad press and pending court cases rocked the lucrative Gucci corporation.

Things went from bad to worse when in 1993 Maurizio Gucci gave up his position of company president and sold his portion of the company to a multinational corporation, Investcorp. Many likened it to escaping a sinking ship. When this happened, a new creative director was installed: Dawn Mello.

During this phase, things weren't looking good for the fashion powerhouse known as Gucci. As such, in 1994 a new, and much younger, creative director was hired - 36-year old Tom Ford. It is widely acknowledged that his involvement with Gucci put the company back on top and moved it into the position it's in today - one of prosperity.

When Tom Ford joined Gucci in the mid '90s it was in disastrous shape, close to bankruptcy, and by 1999 the Italian design house was worth more than $4 billion. In April 2004, Tom Ford left the Gucci group after he disagreed with the major bosses over the creative control of the group.

In mid 2004, three fresh new faces were promoted from within the group to lead the Gucci name into the future. Alessandra Facchinetti had worked underneath Tom Ford for four years and was promoted to design director of the women's division, while Scottish designer John Ray was given the directorship of the menswear portfolio and Frida Giannini was promoted to the role of creative director of accessories.

The now-empowered label has shrugged off the lethargy of the early 1990s, and would no doubt make Guccio Gucci a proud man to see just how popular his label is, beginning life as a humble saddlery shop in Florence in 1906.

Links:
Gucci