Misplaced Pages

Gucci

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.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Socalmikey84 (talk | contribs) at 20:45, 17 May 2005 (→History of the Gucci house: adding more info). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 20:45, 17 May 2005 by Socalmikey84 (talk | contribs) (→History of the Gucci house: adding more info)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
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

By the 1980s, business leadership of the company eventually passed on to Rodolfo's son, Maurizio Gucci, but most of his cousins have already left. Between 1987 and 1989 the family sold a 50% share in the company to Investcorp, a Bahrain-based investment company. In the early 1990s, Gucci underwent what is now recognised as the poorest time in the company's history. The brand was rapidly expanded which had an adverse effect of the desirability of the brand, product quality and distribution control. In a 2004 special on the luxury goods industry, The Economist wrote that Gucci was "near crippled" by the uncontrolled expansion. In 1993, Maurizio Gucci sold the remaining 50% of the to Investcorp, and it was renamed "Gucci Group NV". One of the firm's designers, Tom Ford was appointed Creative Director and assigned the task of bringing the company around. This was largely accomplished with a reigning in of the brand. Gucci Group was launched as 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%

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: