Misplaced Pages

Gucci: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 21:08, 17 May 2005 view sourceSocalmikey84 (talk | contribs)119 edits →Corporate Gucci: added info← Previous edit Revision as of 21:10, 17 May 2005 view source Socalmikey84 (talk | contribs)119 editsm →Corporate GucciNext edit →
Line 16: Line 16:
==Corporate Gucci== ==Corporate Gucci==


Rodolfo’s death in 1983 caused a major shakeup in the company when he left his 50% stake in Gucci to his son, ]. Maurizio allied with Aldo’s son Paolo to gain control of the Board of Directors and established the Gucci Licensing division in the ] 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, ].) 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. Rodolfo’s death in 1983 caused a major shakeup in the company when he left his 50% stake in Gucci to his son, ]. Maurizio allied with Aldo’s son Paolo to gain control of the Board of Directors and established the Gucci Licensing division in the ] 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, ].) 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.


In ], Maurizio managed to persuade ], whose revival of New York's ] in the 1970s made her a star in the retail business, to join the newly-formed Gucci Group as creative director. At the helm of Gucci America was ], a former lawyer who helped oversee Maurizio’s takeover of the company and the purchase of the company’s remaining shares by ], a ]-based holding company between ] and ]. The last addition to the creative team, which already included designers from ] and ], was a young designer named ]. Raised in ] and ], he had been interested in fashion since his early teens but only decided to pursue a career as a designer after dropping out of ] in ]. Dawn Mello hired Ford in ] at the urging of his partner, writer and editor ]. In ], Maurizio managed to persuade ], whose revival of New York's ] in the 1970s made her a star in the retail business, to join the newly-formed Gucci Group as creative director. At the helm of Gucci America was ], a former lawyer who helped oversee Maurizio’s takeover of the company and the purchase of the company’s remaining shares by ], a ]-based holding company between ] and ]. The last addition to the creative team, which already included designers from ] and ], was a young designer named ]. Raised in ] and ], he had been interested in fashion since his early teens but only decided to pursue a career as a designer after dropping out of ] in ]. Dawn Mello hired Ford in ] at the urging of his partner, writer and editor ].

Revision as of 21:10, 17 May 2005

File:GucciLogo.JPG
The trademarked Gucci logo

Gucci, or the House of Gucci, is an Italian haute couture establishment. It was founded by Guccio Gucci (1881-1953) in Florence in 1921.

History of the Gucci house

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 travelled to Paris and London, where he "gained an appreciation of cosmopolitan culture, sophistication, and aesthetics." Gucci opened his first boutique in the family’s native Florence in 1921 and 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, New York, and Palm Beach. 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 the 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 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.

Corporate Gucci

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.

In 1989, Maurizio managed to persuade Dawn Mello, whose revival of New York's Bergdorf Goodman in the 1970s made her a star in the retail business, to join the newly-formed Gucci Group as creative director. At the helm of Gucci America was Domenico De Sole, a former lawyer who helped oversee Maurizio’s takeover of the company and the purchase of the company’s remaining shares by Investcorp, a Bahrain-based holding company between 1987 and 1989. The last addition to the creative team, which already included designers from Geoffrey Beene and Calvin Klein, was a young designer named Tom Ford. Raised in Texas and New Mexico, he had been interested in fashion since his early teens but only decided to pursue a career as a designer after dropping out of New York University in 1980. Dawn Mello hired Ford in 1990 at the urging of his partner, writer and editor Richard Buckley.

In the early 1990s, Gucci underwent what is now recognized as the poorest time in the company's history. Maurizio riled distributors, Investcorp shareholders, and executives at Gucci America by drastically reining in on the sales of the Gucci Accessories Collection, which in the United States alone generated $110 million in revenue every year. The company’s new accessories failed to pick up the slack, and for the next three years the company experienced heavy losses and teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. Maurizio was a charming man who passionately loved his family's business, but after four years most of the company's senior managers agreed that he was incapable of running the company. His management had had an adverse effect on the desirability of the brand, product quality, and distribution control. He was forced to sell his shares in the company to Investcorp in August of 1993. Dawn Mello returned to her job at Bergdorf Goodman less than a year after Maurizio’s departure, and the position of creative director went to Tom Ford, then just 32 years old. Ford had worked for years under the uninspiring direction of Maurizio and Mellow and wanted to take the company’s image in a new direction. De Sole, who had been elevated to CEO, realized that if Gucci was to become a profitable company, it would require a new image, and so he agreed to pursue Ford’s vision.

Gucci Group became a publicly traded company in 1995, listing on the New York and Amsterdam stock exchanges. It issued further shares in 1996. In 1999 it launched a "strategic alliance" with Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR), which involved issuing more shares, sold only to PPR in order to finance growth. PPR now owns 68% of the group. The second largest shareholder is Credit Lyonnais with 11%

Brands

Using the capital obtained from the PPR issue, the Group has steadily expanded beyond just the Gucci brand through a series of takeovers. As of 2004, the Gucci Group had whole or partial interests in the following companies or brands:

Since the turnaround of the mid-1990s Gucci has continued to prosper as an influential fashion house and a highly profitable business operation. The Gucci brand is considered one of the most frequently mentioned brands. The firm was named "European Company of the Year 1998" by the European Business Press Federation for its economic and financial performance, strategic vision as well as management quality.

See also

External links

Categories: